Hey there. This is a one-shot about the life of Giovanni, the leader of Team Rocket.as far as I knowNot much is known about this man, other than that he is a crime lord who has had a major influence on the characters in the pokeverse.
This story is my interpretation of what Giovanni's birth, childhood, and teenage years were like. Yes I mixed a few things from anime and games, invented a few places, and even used something from Pokemon Live! (lol), but it was for the betterment of the story.
NOTE: I didn't attempt to look up any background knowledge on Giovanni, such as where he is from or anything. I'm not sure how much is known about him, so keep that in mind as you read this. This is purely my own interpretation. Also, this is rather long, but it's in 4 parts so you can break it down and read 2 a day or something.
Enjoy
Part 1: A Newborn Bastard
A flashy convertible sped down the highway on a cool night. A young married couple was enjoying a date, and the two could not be any happier. The man was tall and lean, and very handsome. He had slick, black hair but usually wore a hat over it. He worked as a businessman in Goldenrod’s Business District and made a great living. His wife was 8 ½ months pregnant and was getting ready to have the baby in a matter of weeks. She had long, dark brown hair that was wrapped up so the wind wouldn’t mess it up. Her lips were painted red, and her face was as white as a porcelain doll. It wasn’t a sickly looking pale though; she glowed. A gorgeous couple they were.
The couple was living the Johto Dream. A nice income, happily married, baby on the way; what could ever go wrong? The couple was driving along the winding roads of Johto on their way back from a date. It’s no secret that the husband had had his fair share of alcohol, but in those days people drove buzzed all the time. They did the same thing every Friday night, though as of late, the missus didn’t drink for obvious reasons.
They were taking curves at nearly 60mph, pushing their sports car to the limit. “Oh honey, slow down! We do have three people in the car now,” said the wife, placing her hand on her stomach.
“Oh hush! We hardly ever see any other cars on this road, tonight’s no different.” The man laughed. “Besides, if we drive fast we’ll be home sooner! You’ve been saying how tired you are, carrying the child,”
“Yes, I have been much more tired as of late. He’s getting so much bigger!” she said.
“That’s my boy, strong as an ox!” the husband laughed.
They laughed the entire drive. They were so happy, why shouldn’t they be? As they rounded a curve of the familiar road they saw lights in the distance. “Uh-oh, better start paying attention I guess,” Said the husband.
He composed himself and began to stay on his own side of the road a bit more than he had been. As they neared the lights they noticed that the other car was swerving around. “Honey, look out! That man is drunker than you are!” she said.
“Surely he’ll see us,” he said.
They were within fifty feet of each other now and the drunk driver in the other car swerved once more, this time into the car holding the happily married couple. Their convertible’s front end was completely demolished and the entire car was sent flying off the side of the road. The other vehicle, a pickup truck, spun around a few times and came to a screeching halt. Its front end was also damaged, but not like the convertible’s.
The driver of the truck jumped out of his vehicle and ran over to the red sports car. He peeked inside and saw nobody in the car. He looked behind it, where the cars had collided, and saw two blood covered bodies lying on the pavement. One, a man, was moaning in agony and clutching his abdomen. His hand was struggling to keep his intestines within him. He spat blood on the pavement and cried out in pain.
The lady, whom the driver noticed was very pregnant, didn’t move a bit, but her leg was nearly off of her body. The shin was still barely intact, but it hung like a door on a hinge and was nearly at a ninety degree angle.
The driver touched his forehead and noticed blood on his fingers. He looked at the two injured people once more and vomited. He glanced back up at them and grabbed his hair with both hands. “Oh, shit. What the hell am I going to do now? Oh, God,” He paced back and forth until finally he got back in his truck.
He sped off; this blood wasn’t going to be on his hands. He drove to the nearest payphone he could find and dialed 911. “911, what’s your emergency?”
“A wreck. It’s a red convertible on Highway 105 near Gastly’s Gas Station. It looked like two people were hurt, and they were hurt bad,”
“We’ll send-“the man didn’t let her finish. He got back in his truck and drove away again. This time he didn’t stop until he reached Kanto.
***
At the crash, officers and ambulances were just arriving at the scene. The man had bled out by now and his guts were now sitting next to him on the warm pavement. As the paramedics laid a sheet over his dead body, the woman began to scream. It was a blood curdling scream that shocked everyone around the wreck.
Paramedics rushed over to her and naturally assumed that she was regaining consciousness and feeling the pain of her leg. One paramedic lifted her leg to examine it, but was shocked to see blood coming out from underneath her. It wasn’t blood from her wound, it was coming from between her legs.
He lifted her dress to see that she was going into labor. “Hey, get me a towel and some water over here!” shouted the paramedic. After a few minutes, the baby boy was born. He was two weeks premature and was very frail. The paramedics wrapped him up and took him to the ambulance, but as they went back to tend to the mother, she died.
“Hey, just checked the wallet on this dude. Name’s Giovanni…eh something foreign sounding,” Said another paramedic.
The paramedic who had delivered the child looked up at him. “Well, that’s what the child will have to be called I guess. Giovanni.”
***
One Week Later
They had taken the baby to a nearby hospital and kept it for a week. It had recovered and was in great health, especially for a premature newborn. He ate, slept, and cried just as most of the other newborns did, but for some reason he looked so frail. Though he was exceptionally small, he didn’t have any other health problems and was fine to be released.
“Have you found any living relatives to the parents?” asked a police officer.
“One. We have an uncle who lives in…Cherrygrove City!” said another officer.
“Alright, that’s where this little guy is going then.”
The officers got into their cars and took the baby with them. They drove for a couple of hours until they reached the baby’s uncle’s house in Cherrygrove.
“Yeah? Whatchu want?” said a drunken man who answered the door.
“Er, we have terrible news sir. May we come in?”
“I reckon.” Said the man.
He was wearing nothing but a pair of boxer shorts and a wife beater. He stank heavily of booze and cigarette smoke, as did the rest of his home. The home was an absolute mess just as the man was; a stark contrast to his dashing brother.
“Sir, your brother, Giovanni, was killed in a car accident. He and his wife were hit by a drunk driver,” Said the officer.
Giovanni’s brother said nothing for awhile, then looked at them and said, “And the wife?”
“Also dead,”
Once more, he fell silent. As he thought about this news, he heard the cry of a baby. He looked for the source of the noise, and then to the officer. “What the hell was that?”
“That’s what we wanted to talk to you about. You see, your brother and his wife were expecting a child. She was about 8 ½ months pregnant actually. When paramedics arrived, she went into labor and this child was born. You happen to be the only living relative, so we were hoping you could raise him. You’re the only one he’s got.”
The man walked over to the child. He picked him up out of his seat and looked him over. “What’s the boy’s name?”
“Giovanni, named after his father.”
He looked at the child once more and said, “Alright. I’ll raise him.”
***
Part 2: A Painful Childhood
“Dammit John! What the hell is wrong with you? I told you nine times to clean this shit hole up and you still ain’t managed to!” Giovanni’s uncle shouted. He walked down the hall to Giovanni’s, or John as he called him, room and pushed the door open.
“Sorry, I’ll go clean it now. I promise,” Said the six year old Giovanni. He was much smaller than most kids his age.
“What you shoulda done is cleaned it when I told you the first god damn time!” shouted his Uncle. He walked over to Giovanni and grabbed him by the neck. He laid a fist hard into Giovanni’s gut and then slapped his face several times.
He dropped the bruised child onto the floor, who was gasping for air. “I’ll…go…clean it,” Said Giovanni.
“You’re damn right you will. I’m going to the bar, it better be cleaned right when I get back, you hear me?” he yelled.
Giovanni stood up and rubbed his neck, “Yes, sir.”
“Good. I’ll be back whenever,” said his uncle. He heard him walk down the hall and slam the door on his way out.
Giovanni’s uncle beat him on a daily basis. He was perpetually drunk and spent most afternoons and nights at the local bar. Giovanni would take these few hours to journey toward the nearby New Bark Town to try and spot pokemon who played in the grass in between the two towns.
He loved watching the beasts and dreamed about owning his own one day. When his uncle was gone, Giovanni also enjoyed TV; a luxury he was denied when his uncle was in the house. He watched shows that taught children about pokemon and others about gym leaders and other famous people such as professors.
Giovanni walked around the house cleaning up his uncle’s messes. Giovanni was a tidy child, but his uncle was a drunken slob, and made Giovanni clean up after him. He cleaned the entire house and then went to the bathroom. He opened the cabinet and pulled out some iodine for his wounds. He had a gash on his eyebrow that had been reopened by his uncle’s barrage of slaps only moments before. He cleaned that wound and then removed his shirt to view his others. He had bruises all over his back and ribcage, but it was nothing he wasn’t used to.
Ever since he remembered, his uncle had beaten him. He always told him that his parents abandoned him and didn’t care about him, but one day he had come home even more drunk than usual. That night Giovanni had learned that his parents had died in a wreck, just after he was born.
The news didn’t sadden the young boy; in fact it came as a relief. He had never known them, so their deaths didn’t faze him, but it was much better that way than if they had actually abandoned him. Either way, he wasn’t happy living with his uncle.
The other children in Cherrygrove had no clue that the young Giovanni even existed. He stayed in the house all day, forbidden to go to school. He longed to have friends, but knew that if his uncle found out he would only beat him more. He saw other kids on the route between Cherrygrove and New Bark but they avoided him most of the time. Giovanni almost always had cuts and bruises on his face which scared the others away from him.
Giovanni endured this hell on earth for fourteen years. When he was fourteen, he made his escape.
***
Part 3: Giovanni the Troubled Teen
Giovanni escaped from his uncle and ran East as far as he could. He ran through the fields of the familiar route between towns, and then he ran through New Bark Town until he reached the shore. When he saw the ocean, he merely threw his things onto the beach and began to swim; nothing would keep him with his uncle.
He swam from island to island until he reached the new region, Kanto. He walked through the gate casually and entered a place called the Indigo Plateau. He was only there for a short time, and quickly made his way to the next route. It was a beautifully bricked road, with manicured hedges on both sides. Giovanni had never seen such beauty; he had never even left Cherrygrove before.
He walked this route until it became a dirt path in the outskirts of a city called Viridian. He entered the city and soon fell in love with her. The streets, the buildings, the people, were all so foreign to him, yet he felt at home here.
He got a job as a busboy in a local café to pay his rent in a small, shithole apartment downtown. He didn’t live in pleasant conditions, but it was far better than living in that dreaded house in Cherrygrove. He finally earned enough money to pay for something he had longed for all his life, an education.
He enrolled himself into the trainer’s school in Viridian and instantly became a star pupil. He devoted everything to learning about pokemon; their types, evolutions, everything. He studied hard and soon found that his favorite type of pokemon was the Ground type. They were hardy, yet soft and kind. He wanted to catch a pokemon of his own, but he couldn’t afford any pokeballs on top of tuition and his rent.
When the next semester started, a new student transferred from the pokemon school in Jubilife City. Her name was Delia. Giovanni was deeply infatuated with her, but kept his feelings secret. She was a striking girl, with thick brown locks that hung onto her shoulders.
Giovanni hadn’t realized it, but he had become quite handsome as he aged. He was fifteen now, and his boyish look left him and was replaced with that of a young man. His jaw sharpened and his muscles grew. He was tall and lean, just like his father, but he had his mother’s beautiful features. He was, by far, the most striking boy in his class.
Delia took notice of him instantly and developed feelings for him, but like Giovanni, kept them secret. One day, they were paired for an assignment. The two both blushed and pushed their desks together.
“Um, hi, I’m Delia,” she said.
“I’m Giovanni, it’s nice to meet you,”
The two hit it off instantly. They had common interests and tastes in music, they were even both from different regions. Giovanni told her he was from Johto, but didn’t inform her of the circumstances under which he had left.
They eventually began to date, and Giovanni realized that he loved Delia. As time went by, Giovanni got angrier though. After turning 16, his grades began to slip and he was hanging around with a very shady bunch of boys. He felt deprived of a childhood and took out his anger on the people around him.
He decided one day to start a club with the other boys he hung out with; The Flaming Rockets. They would be the hardest gang in Viridian, and maybe once they got older, Kanto. By 17 he was robbing elderly people and younger children. Delia didn’t particularly like the way he behaved, but she believed that he was merely going through a phase, just as all teenagers do.
One day, she confronted Giovanni about it. “Giovanni, why do you act like such a creep sometimes?”
“What?” she had never said anything like this to him before; he was caught off-guard.
“You’re robbing people, I hate it…”
“Look, we’re just having some fun, ok? Nothing to worry about,” he told her. He leaned in to kiss her forehead, but she turned away.
“I want you to stop,” she said.
“I won’t,” said Giovanni.
“Why not? You aren’t even benefitting from it. All you’re getting from these people is pocket change! Besides, the cops have already arrested you twice. Not to mention how my reputation has tarnished,” said Delia.
“Your reputation? Is that what this is about?” he shouted. “Oh, I wouldn’t want to hurt your precious reputation. Don’t you love me? You should be able to look past all of this and still see the same Giovanni,”
“Well, I don’t. I see an attention hungry idiot.” Delia retorted.
“I’m doing this for us, Delia. If we really are going to get married, we need money.” He said.
“Pocket change won’t cover a wedding, and it definitely won’t support a married couple.”
“I know. Me and the boys are moving on to bigger and better things though. We have plans to really step things up, to start getting our own pokemon, and to start pulling real jobs!”
“I refuse to be a part of this. I won’t be married to a criminal.” Delia stated. “You can have your gang, or you can have me, but not both.”
Delia walked to her house, leaving Giovanni standing in the road. He decided to hike through Viridian forest and to the south of Pewter City. There was a cave, Diglett’s Cave, which was his favorite place to go. It smelled of earth and the ground was soft and loamy. Sometimes he would stay there for hours, thinking about everything there was to think about.
He went there and contemplated everything that Delia had told him. Yes, he loved her more than anything. The opportunities were too great though! He and his gang had a chance to actually become something, something great. Sure they had to start small, but once they built up enough cash, they could work their way up from there!
Delia was so blind to all of this. She only saw it for what it was on the outside. He was only trying to make things easier for her, to make her happier. Giovanni decided that if she couldn’t understand this, he didn’t want her anymore.
He walked to her house and knocked on the door. She answered and noticed that Giovanni’s face was torn from crying. “Oh, come in,” she said.
They sat on her bed and talked about the issue at hand. “I wish you could understand why I’m doing this, I’ll be so successful one day,” said Giovanni.
“That’s great. I have made my position clear though, I won’t be a part of any of this. I’ve given you your ultimatum, and you seem to have made up your mind,” she said.
“Yes. I guess I have,” said Giovanni solemnly.
Neither one of them said anything for several minutes. Both stared at the floor, each crying softly. They truly loved each other, but Delia didn’t want his lifestyle, and Giovanni loved money and power too much.
“I guess that’s it then,” said Giovanni.
“I guess so.”
Those were the last words that he ever spoke to Delia. He walked out of her house and to his own apartment. He decided that he would move away from Viridian City for awhile, and see what opportunities awaited his gang in Saffron City. It was a much larger city, with more people to rob and manipulate. Giovanni’s plan was to become a crime boss, no matter what the cost.
When he went for a walk the next morning, he decided to walk by Delia’s house. When he arrived he saw her loading everything into a moving truck. He got closer, without being seen, and listened to what she told the movers.
“So where are we taking this?” one asked.
“Pallet Town please, I need it moved as soon as you can get it there,” she said.
“Will do, ma’am,” he said. The movers loaded the last few boxes up and drove away to the south. He watched his love get into a car and drive away behind them.
Giovanni then made his way to Saffron City. There he could start anew. Instead of taking The Flaming Rockets along with him, he disappeared in the night without mentioning a thing.
***
Part 4: New Opportunities
Giovanni reached Saffron and was blown away by the size of the city. So many people, so many opportunities. He walked up and down the streets until he found a clothing store. He entered and walked through the aisles aimlessly. He was about to leave, when suddenly a nice suit caught his eye.
It was a pair of black pants, a black blazer, and a white undershirt; very dashing. “Now this is the look of a crime boss!” thought Giovanni. He removed the clothes from the rack and walked up to the counter to buy them.
“That’ll be $2,000 please,” said the cashier.
Giovanni opened his wallet and saw that all he had was $300. It was all he had saved up by robbing the citizens of Viridian. Embarrassed, he placed his wallet back in his pocket. When he stuck his hand in his pocket, he felt something cold and metal hit his hand. His switchblade pocketknife. Giovanni pulled out the knife and flashed the blade at the cashier who put her hands up.
“Please, just take the clothes and go!” she cried. Giovanni pointed the knife at her and looked around to see shoppers looking at him. He grabbed a fedora off of a nearby rack and covered his face with it and ran out the door.
He ran far away from the store and into a crowded, shady looking bar. He went to the bar’s bathroom and put on the suit. Giovanni was incredibly handsome in the suit, he looked like his father. He could have passed for at least 21 while wearing it. He placed the black fedora on his head and exited the bathroom.
He looked around him and saw scum. Every corner of the bar was filled with men who looked as if they had all had the same childhood as Giovanni, but were still living it. He thought that these rough men would make perfect minions for his team.
He grabbed a glass and tapped it loudly with a knife. The noisy bar quickly grew quiet as Giovanni stood on a chair.
“Hello everyone,” he said coolly. He was very charismatic, especially dressed so professionally. “I have a proposition for you.”
The patrons looked at one another, wondering who this guy thought he was. “Who the fuck are you?” one yelled. Several of the others laughed. Giovanni pulled his switchblade out and quickly rushed over to where the man was standing.
He placed the blade up to the now quivering man’s neck and said, “I’m Giovanni, and I’m head of a criminal organization." he looked into the man's eyes and saw pure fear. "You’re wondering if I’m willing to do it, aren’t you?”
The man nodded and Giovanni noticed that he had peed himself. Giovanni shoved him down and put his knife away. “As I said, I am the leader of a criminal organization. I’m looking for new members to join, and you guys look like you fit the bill.”
“What’s in it for us, huh?” a man shouted.
“Money, power, whatever you want. You help me out, and you’ll get anything you need.”
The men talked amongst themselves for awhile, and then a man shouted out, “Ok, I’ll do it.” More and more of the rough men began to agree that it was a good deal, and joined. Before long, nearly half of the men in the bar had joined Giovanni’s side.
“We should be able to start our operations soon then. I trust you have your own pokemon?” he said. The various men nodded.
“Of course we do, hahaha. What do you think we are, children?” the men laughed and Giovanni felt a pang of embarrassment. He didn’t even have a pokemon of his own yet, but he wouldn’t let his henchmen know that, just as he wouldn’t let them know that he was only a teenager.
“Good. We’ll start gathering here then, to formulate plans. We’ll start small and work our way up, slowly pulling bigger and bigger jobs. Eventually, we’ll be the greatest force in Kanto, possibly in any region!” Giovanni shouted triumphantly.
The men raised their fists into the air and shouted with him, he had won them over now. One man quieted the rest and asked Giovanni a question. “Hey, what’s the name of this ‘organization’ anyway?”
The men looked to Giovanni for an answer. He thought for a moment, then hissed, “Team Rocket.”
This story is my interpretation of what Giovanni's birth, childhood, and teenage years were like. Yes I mixed a few things from anime and games, invented a few places, and even used something from Pokemon Live! (lol), but it was for the betterment of the story.
NOTE: I didn't attempt to look up any background knowledge on Giovanni, such as where he is from or anything. I'm not sure how much is known about him, so keep that in mind as you read this. This is purely my own interpretation. Also, this is rather long, but it's in 4 parts so you can break it down and read 2 a day or something.
Enjoy
Origins: Giovanni
***Part 1: A Newborn Bastard
A flashy convertible sped down the highway on a cool night. A young married couple was enjoying a date, and the two could not be any happier. The man was tall and lean, and very handsome. He had slick, black hair but usually wore a hat over it. He worked as a businessman in Goldenrod’s Business District and made a great living. His wife was 8 ½ months pregnant and was getting ready to have the baby in a matter of weeks. She had long, dark brown hair that was wrapped up so the wind wouldn’t mess it up. Her lips were painted red, and her face was as white as a porcelain doll. It wasn’t a sickly looking pale though; she glowed. A gorgeous couple they were.
The couple was living the Johto Dream. A nice income, happily married, baby on the way; what could ever go wrong? The couple was driving along the winding roads of Johto on their way back from a date. It’s no secret that the husband had had his fair share of alcohol, but in those days people drove buzzed all the time. They did the same thing every Friday night, though as of late, the missus didn’t drink for obvious reasons.
They were taking curves at nearly 60mph, pushing their sports car to the limit. “Oh honey, slow down! We do have three people in the car now,” said the wife, placing her hand on her stomach.
“Oh hush! We hardly ever see any other cars on this road, tonight’s no different.” The man laughed. “Besides, if we drive fast we’ll be home sooner! You’ve been saying how tired you are, carrying the child,”
“Yes, I have been much more tired as of late. He’s getting so much bigger!” she said.
“That’s my boy, strong as an ox!” the husband laughed.
They laughed the entire drive. They were so happy, why shouldn’t they be? As they rounded a curve of the familiar road they saw lights in the distance. “Uh-oh, better start paying attention I guess,” Said the husband.
He composed himself and began to stay on his own side of the road a bit more than he had been. As they neared the lights they noticed that the other car was swerving around. “Honey, look out! That man is drunker than you are!” she said.
“Surely he’ll see us,” he said.
They were within fifty feet of each other now and the drunk driver in the other car swerved once more, this time into the car holding the happily married couple. Their convertible’s front end was completely demolished and the entire car was sent flying off the side of the road. The other vehicle, a pickup truck, spun around a few times and came to a screeching halt. Its front end was also damaged, but not like the convertible’s.
The driver of the truck jumped out of his vehicle and ran over to the red sports car. He peeked inside and saw nobody in the car. He looked behind it, where the cars had collided, and saw two blood covered bodies lying on the pavement. One, a man, was moaning in agony and clutching his abdomen. His hand was struggling to keep his intestines within him. He spat blood on the pavement and cried out in pain.
The lady, whom the driver noticed was very pregnant, didn’t move a bit, but her leg was nearly off of her body. The shin was still barely intact, but it hung like a door on a hinge and was nearly at a ninety degree angle.
The driver touched his forehead and noticed blood on his fingers. He looked at the two injured people once more and vomited. He glanced back up at them and grabbed his hair with both hands. “Oh, shit. What the hell am I going to do now? Oh, God,” He paced back and forth until finally he got back in his truck.
He sped off; this blood wasn’t going to be on his hands. He drove to the nearest payphone he could find and dialed 911. “911, what’s your emergency?”
“A wreck. It’s a red convertible on Highway 105 near Gastly’s Gas Station. It looked like two people were hurt, and they were hurt bad,”
“We’ll send-“the man didn’t let her finish. He got back in his truck and drove away again. This time he didn’t stop until he reached Kanto.
***
At the crash, officers and ambulances were just arriving at the scene. The man had bled out by now and his guts were now sitting next to him on the warm pavement. As the paramedics laid a sheet over his dead body, the woman began to scream. It was a blood curdling scream that shocked everyone around the wreck.
Paramedics rushed over to her and naturally assumed that she was regaining consciousness and feeling the pain of her leg. One paramedic lifted her leg to examine it, but was shocked to see blood coming out from underneath her. It wasn’t blood from her wound, it was coming from between her legs.
He lifted her dress to see that she was going into labor. “Hey, get me a towel and some water over here!” shouted the paramedic. After a few minutes, the baby boy was born. He was two weeks premature and was very frail. The paramedics wrapped him up and took him to the ambulance, but as they went back to tend to the mother, she died.
“Hey, just checked the wallet on this dude. Name’s Giovanni…eh something foreign sounding,” Said another paramedic.
The paramedic who had delivered the child looked up at him. “Well, that’s what the child will have to be called I guess. Giovanni.”
***
One Week Later
They had taken the baby to a nearby hospital and kept it for a week. It had recovered and was in great health, especially for a premature newborn. He ate, slept, and cried just as most of the other newborns did, but for some reason he looked so frail. Though he was exceptionally small, he didn’t have any other health problems and was fine to be released.
“Have you found any living relatives to the parents?” asked a police officer.
“One. We have an uncle who lives in…Cherrygrove City!” said another officer.
“Alright, that’s where this little guy is going then.”
The officers got into their cars and took the baby with them. They drove for a couple of hours until they reached the baby’s uncle’s house in Cherrygrove.
“Yeah? Whatchu want?” said a drunken man who answered the door.
“Er, we have terrible news sir. May we come in?”
“I reckon.” Said the man.
He was wearing nothing but a pair of boxer shorts and a wife beater. He stank heavily of booze and cigarette smoke, as did the rest of his home. The home was an absolute mess just as the man was; a stark contrast to his dashing brother.
“Sir, your brother, Giovanni, was killed in a car accident. He and his wife were hit by a drunk driver,” Said the officer.
Giovanni’s brother said nothing for awhile, then looked at them and said, “And the wife?”
“Also dead,”
Once more, he fell silent. As he thought about this news, he heard the cry of a baby. He looked for the source of the noise, and then to the officer. “What the hell was that?”
“That’s what we wanted to talk to you about. You see, your brother and his wife were expecting a child. She was about 8 ½ months pregnant actually. When paramedics arrived, she went into labor and this child was born. You happen to be the only living relative, so we were hoping you could raise him. You’re the only one he’s got.”
The man walked over to the child. He picked him up out of his seat and looked him over. “What’s the boy’s name?”
“Giovanni, named after his father.”
He looked at the child once more and said, “Alright. I’ll raise him.”
***
Part 2: A Painful Childhood
“Dammit John! What the hell is wrong with you? I told you nine times to clean this shit hole up and you still ain’t managed to!” Giovanni’s uncle shouted. He walked down the hall to Giovanni’s, or John as he called him, room and pushed the door open.
“Sorry, I’ll go clean it now. I promise,” Said the six year old Giovanni. He was much smaller than most kids his age.
“What you shoulda done is cleaned it when I told you the first god damn time!” shouted his Uncle. He walked over to Giovanni and grabbed him by the neck. He laid a fist hard into Giovanni’s gut and then slapped his face several times.
He dropped the bruised child onto the floor, who was gasping for air. “I’ll…go…clean it,” Said Giovanni.
“You’re damn right you will. I’m going to the bar, it better be cleaned right when I get back, you hear me?” he yelled.
Giovanni stood up and rubbed his neck, “Yes, sir.”
“Good. I’ll be back whenever,” said his uncle. He heard him walk down the hall and slam the door on his way out.
Giovanni’s uncle beat him on a daily basis. He was perpetually drunk and spent most afternoons and nights at the local bar. Giovanni would take these few hours to journey toward the nearby New Bark Town to try and spot pokemon who played in the grass in between the two towns.
He loved watching the beasts and dreamed about owning his own one day. When his uncle was gone, Giovanni also enjoyed TV; a luxury he was denied when his uncle was in the house. He watched shows that taught children about pokemon and others about gym leaders and other famous people such as professors.
Giovanni walked around the house cleaning up his uncle’s messes. Giovanni was a tidy child, but his uncle was a drunken slob, and made Giovanni clean up after him. He cleaned the entire house and then went to the bathroom. He opened the cabinet and pulled out some iodine for his wounds. He had a gash on his eyebrow that had been reopened by his uncle’s barrage of slaps only moments before. He cleaned that wound and then removed his shirt to view his others. He had bruises all over his back and ribcage, but it was nothing he wasn’t used to.
Ever since he remembered, his uncle had beaten him. He always told him that his parents abandoned him and didn’t care about him, but one day he had come home even more drunk than usual. That night Giovanni had learned that his parents had died in a wreck, just after he was born.
The news didn’t sadden the young boy; in fact it came as a relief. He had never known them, so their deaths didn’t faze him, but it was much better that way than if they had actually abandoned him. Either way, he wasn’t happy living with his uncle.
The other children in Cherrygrove had no clue that the young Giovanni even existed. He stayed in the house all day, forbidden to go to school. He longed to have friends, but knew that if his uncle found out he would only beat him more. He saw other kids on the route between Cherrygrove and New Bark but they avoided him most of the time. Giovanni almost always had cuts and bruises on his face which scared the others away from him.
Giovanni endured this hell on earth for fourteen years. When he was fourteen, he made his escape.
***
Part 3: Giovanni the Troubled Teen
Giovanni escaped from his uncle and ran East as far as he could. He ran through the fields of the familiar route between towns, and then he ran through New Bark Town until he reached the shore. When he saw the ocean, he merely threw his things onto the beach and began to swim; nothing would keep him with his uncle.
He swam from island to island until he reached the new region, Kanto. He walked through the gate casually and entered a place called the Indigo Plateau. He was only there for a short time, and quickly made his way to the next route. It was a beautifully bricked road, with manicured hedges on both sides. Giovanni had never seen such beauty; he had never even left Cherrygrove before.
He walked this route until it became a dirt path in the outskirts of a city called Viridian. He entered the city and soon fell in love with her. The streets, the buildings, the people, were all so foreign to him, yet he felt at home here.
He got a job as a busboy in a local café to pay his rent in a small, shithole apartment downtown. He didn’t live in pleasant conditions, but it was far better than living in that dreaded house in Cherrygrove. He finally earned enough money to pay for something he had longed for all his life, an education.
He enrolled himself into the trainer’s school in Viridian and instantly became a star pupil. He devoted everything to learning about pokemon; their types, evolutions, everything. He studied hard and soon found that his favorite type of pokemon was the Ground type. They were hardy, yet soft and kind. He wanted to catch a pokemon of his own, but he couldn’t afford any pokeballs on top of tuition and his rent.
When the next semester started, a new student transferred from the pokemon school in Jubilife City. Her name was Delia. Giovanni was deeply infatuated with her, but kept his feelings secret. She was a striking girl, with thick brown locks that hung onto her shoulders.
Giovanni hadn’t realized it, but he had become quite handsome as he aged. He was fifteen now, and his boyish look left him and was replaced with that of a young man. His jaw sharpened and his muscles grew. He was tall and lean, just like his father, but he had his mother’s beautiful features. He was, by far, the most striking boy in his class.
Delia took notice of him instantly and developed feelings for him, but like Giovanni, kept them secret. One day, they were paired for an assignment. The two both blushed and pushed their desks together.
“Um, hi, I’m Delia,” she said.
“I’m Giovanni, it’s nice to meet you,”
The two hit it off instantly. They had common interests and tastes in music, they were even both from different regions. Giovanni told her he was from Johto, but didn’t inform her of the circumstances under which he had left.
They eventually began to date, and Giovanni realized that he loved Delia. As time went by, Giovanni got angrier though. After turning 16, his grades began to slip and he was hanging around with a very shady bunch of boys. He felt deprived of a childhood and took out his anger on the people around him.
He decided one day to start a club with the other boys he hung out with; The Flaming Rockets. They would be the hardest gang in Viridian, and maybe once they got older, Kanto. By 17 he was robbing elderly people and younger children. Delia didn’t particularly like the way he behaved, but she believed that he was merely going through a phase, just as all teenagers do.
One day, she confronted Giovanni about it. “Giovanni, why do you act like such a creep sometimes?”
“What?” she had never said anything like this to him before; he was caught off-guard.
“You’re robbing people, I hate it…”
“Look, we’re just having some fun, ok? Nothing to worry about,” he told her. He leaned in to kiss her forehead, but she turned away.
“I want you to stop,” she said.
“I won’t,” said Giovanni.
“Why not? You aren’t even benefitting from it. All you’re getting from these people is pocket change! Besides, the cops have already arrested you twice. Not to mention how my reputation has tarnished,” said Delia.
“Your reputation? Is that what this is about?” he shouted. “Oh, I wouldn’t want to hurt your precious reputation. Don’t you love me? You should be able to look past all of this and still see the same Giovanni,”
“Well, I don’t. I see an attention hungry idiot.” Delia retorted.
“I’m doing this for us, Delia. If we really are going to get married, we need money.” He said.
“Pocket change won’t cover a wedding, and it definitely won’t support a married couple.”
“I know. Me and the boys are moving on to bigger and better things though. We have plans to really step things up, to start getting our own pokemon, and to start pulling real jobs!”
“I refuse to be a part of this. I won’t be married to a criminal.” Delia stated. “You can have your gang, or you can have me, but not both.”
Delia walked to her house, leaving Giovanni standing in the road. He decided to hike through Viridian forest and to the south of Pewter City. There was a cave, Diglett’s Cave, which was his favorite place to go. It smelled of earth and the ground was soft and loamy. Sometimes he would stay there for hours, thinking about everything there was to think about.
He went there and contemplated everything that Delia had told him. Yes, he loved her more than anything. The opportunities were too great though! He and his gang had a chance to actually become something, something great. Sure they had to start small, but once they built up enough cash, they could work their way up from there!
Delia was so blind to all of this. She only saw it for what it was on the outside. He was only trying to make things easier for her, to make her happier. Giovanni decided that if she couldn’t understand this, he didn’t want her anymore.
He walked to her house and knocked on the door. She answered and noticed that Giovanni’s face was torn from crying. “Oh, come in,” she said.
They sat on her bed and talked about the issue at hand. “I wish you could understand why I’m doing this, I’ll be so successful one day,” said Giovanni.
“That’s great. I have made my position clear though, I won’t be a part of any of this. I’ve given you your ultimatum, and you seem to have made up your mind,” she said.
“Yes. I guess I have,” said Giovanni solemnly.
Neither one of them said anything for several minutes. Both stared at the floor, each crying softly. They truly loved each other, but Delia didn’t want his lifestyle, and Giovanni loved money and power too much.
“I guess that’s it then,” said Giovanni.
“I guess so.”
Those were the last words that he ever spoke to Delia. He walked out of her house and to his own apartment. He decided that he would move away from Viridian City for awhile, and see what opportunities awaited his gang in Saffron City. It was a much larger city, with more people to rob and manipulate. Giovanni’s plan was to become a crime boss, no matter what the cost.
When he went for a walk the next morning, he decided to walk by Delia’s house. When he arrived he saw her loading everything into a moving truck. He got closer, without being seen, and listened to what she told the movers.
“So where are we taking this?” one asked.
“Pallet Town please, I need it moved as soon as you can get it there,” she said.
“Will do, ma’am,” he said. The movers loaded the last few boxes up and drove away to the south. He watched his love get into a car and drive away behind them.
Giovanni then made his way to Saffron City. There he could start anew. Instead of taking The Flaming Rockets along with him, he disappeared in the night without mentioning a thing.
***
Part 4: New Opportunities
Giovanni reached Saffron and was blown away by the size of the city. So many people, so many opportunities. He walked up and down the streets until he found a clothing store. He entered and walked through the aisles aimlessly. He was about to leave, when suddenly a nice suit caught his eye.
It was a pair of black pants, a black blazer, and a white undershirt; very dashing. “Now this is the look of a crime boss!” thought Giovanni. He removed the clothes from the rack and walked up to the counter to buy them.
“That’ll be $2,000 please,” said the cashier.
Giovanni opened his wallet and saw that all he had was $300. It was all he had saved up by robbing the citizens of Viridian. Embarrassed, he placed his wallet back in his pocket. When he stuck his hand in his pocket, he felt something cold and metal hit his hand. His switchblade pocketknife. Giovanni pulled out the knife and flashed the blade at the cashier who put her hands up.
“Please, just take the clothes and go!” she cried. Giovanni pointed the knife at her and looked around to see shoppers looking at him. He grabbed a fedora off of a nearby rack and covered his face with it and ran out the door.
He ran far away from the store and into a crowded, shady looking bar. He went to the bar’s bathroom and put on the suit. Giovanni was incredibly handsome in the suit, he looked like his father. He could have passed for at least 21 while wearing it. He placed the black fedora on his head and exited the bathroom.
He looked around him and saw scum. Every corner of the bar was filled with men who looked as if they had all had the same childhood as Giovanni, but were still living it. He thought that these rough men would make perfect minions for his team.
He grabbed a glass and tapped it loudly with a knife. The noisy bar quickly grew quiet as Giovanni stood on a chair.
“Hello everyone,” he said coolly. He was very charismatic, especially dressed so professionally. “I have a proposition for you.”
The patrons looked at one another, wondering who this guy thought he was. “Who the fuck are you?” one yelled. Several of the others laughed. Giovanni pulled his switchblade out and quickly rushed over to where the man was standing.
He placed the blade up to the now quivering man’s neck and said, “I’m Giovanni, and I’m head of a criminal organization." he looked into the man's eyes and saw pure fear. "You’re wondering if I’m willing to do it, aren’t you?”
The man nodded and Giovanni noticed that he had peed himself. Giovanni shoved him down and put his knife away. “As I said, I am the leader of a criminal organization. I’m looking for new members to join, and you guys look like you fit the bill.”
“What’s in it for us, huh?” a man shouted.
“Money, power, whatever you want. You help me out, and you’ll get anything you need.”
The men talked amongst themselves for awhile, and then a man shouted out, “Ok, I’ll do it.” More and more of the rough men began to agree that it was a good deal, and joined. Before long, nearly half of the men in the bar had joined Giovanni’s side.
“We should be able to start our operations soon then. I trust you have your own pokemon?” he said. The various men nodded.
“Of course we do, hahaha. What do you think we are, children?” the men laughed and Giovanni felt a pang of embarrassment. He didn’t even have a pokemon of his own yet, but he wouldn’t let his henchmen know that, just as he wouldn’t let them know that he was only a teenager.
“Good. We’ll start gathering here then, to formulate plans. We’ll start small and work our way up, slowly pulling bigger and bigger jobs. Eventually, we’ll be the greatest force in Kanto, possibly in any region!” Giovanni shouted triumphantly.
The men raised their fists into the air and shouted with him, he had won them over now. One man quieted the rest and asked Giovanni a question. “Hey, what’s the name of this ‘organization’ anyway?”
The men looked to Giovanni for an answer. He thought for a moment, then hissed, “Team Rocket.”
