bigger snippet

“What?! No! What is it--”

“How did it escape, I thought we had it for sure- What is it doing?!”

“It... it's mimicing the attack! Run!!”

“Once again, you thought you could capture me. It's... cute, really. Adorable. But you force me to repeat myself. I cannot be captured. And perhaps you underestimated my brother's talents of mimicry. Perhaps you assumed I myself could not possess that power. But, perhaps it is time for you and your third little... mistake... to learn once and for all that I shall not be tamed, and I will seek the death of all who oppose me. Starting, of course, with you.”

–

--ROCKET LOG – AUGUST 11 [REDACTED]
On The Attacks On The Safari Zone And Disappearance of Class B Member [REDACTED]

Planned raid to capture rare Safari Zone Pokemon canceled after terrorist attack. Locals report ghost sightings shortly before event. Descriptions match up with similar sighting just before Cinnabar power outage. Artist's renderings match physical appearance of failed clones codenamed PROJECT MISSINGNO and PROJECT M, both part of OPERATION DUPLICATE. May possibly connected to disappearance of Class B Member [REDACTED], who was sighted in Cinnabar by Executive [REDACTED] before vanishing without a trace. Class B Member [REACTED] was last sighted with former OPERATION DUPLICATE project leader [REDACTED] and an unknown trainer shortly before the Cinnabar lab caught fire...--

--

The newly anointed Rocket boss shook her head as she read over the old logs she'd unearthed in Giovanni's old desk. It was kind of a tragic tale, really. The Executive mentioned in the log file had been this particular agent's mother, and had never forgotten. Though her original case files had said she was friendly and affable sometime in the past, by the time this particular agent had risen up through the ranks, she had grown bitter and depressed over the loss of her child. It came to a head during the war against Lance, when she, perhaps willfully, threw herself in front of the guns, crying out for her 'baby girl'. Tired of life, tired of pining. She had always been able to see her nightmares while she lay awake.

Depressing, was the word. But, perhaps she would be vindicated in death, because the new boss happened to notice, reading over this log, that it described incidents curiously similar to those starting to happen again recently. Just the other day, explosions rattled Viridian City, and the power grid went out. They had only just been able to get it back online. A ghostly figure had been sighted shortly beforehand... though in these reports there had been two.

Maybe it was too soon to get involved with this sort of shit again, after the Great War. The organization – her organization – was still healing from the massive disruption in the command chain, she couldn't help but think to herself. So many Executives had been lost besides the wounded mother. Many grunts, many higher-class Rockets... There had been a lot of promotions in the months since. And that's not to mention the stress it put on the other teams, and on her other friends. She herself still wasn't sure whether she had gained all the weight back from the weeks in jail.

She had always known that Lance was the enemy of Team Rocket in particular. But when he snapped, everyone felt the effects. He became a genocidal maniac, after he dropped his facade. Bent first on taking down what he perceived as corruption, and then, she remembered hearing from the murmurs of her friends, aiming to capture Arceus, and use its power to wipe out all humanity except for himself. Just him and the Pokemon. The Pokemon that didn't even like him. In the end, 'twas his own Dragonite that dealt the final blow. The boss chuckled darkly, hadn't that been a show. Bit his head right off.

It hadn't been too long since then... sometimes it still didn't feel like she was The Boss. When Viridian was attacked and the injuries totaled, it felt surreal to be the one to issue the commands to rebuild. She had always been under the understanding that she wasn't meant to issue direct orders, only pass them down, because it wasn't her organization.

But it was her organization now, and she was meant to protect it. Maybe the other, left over Executives were right, maybe it was leftover terrorists from Lance's militia. Maybe she was just chasing Zebstrika with this little theory.

She was interrupted during her read by a grunt with a concerned look on his face, and looked up to address him. “State your business.”

“Executive Azurra- er... Boss, whatever attacked Viridian's attackin' our hideout on Cinnabar. Just went and blew the place completely to shit. Injuries bein' flown into the Mount Silver base.”

“Tell Jax to teleport over and to gather water from the... hideaway. She'll know what you mean.” Azurra shook her head. “I think I have a lead on these attacks. Call Agent Dragon and tell her I need to borrow that Garchomp. After that eruption, I'm going to need to do some tunneling.”

“...The fuck you need to do tunnelin' for?”

“Investigation.” She looked down at the paper. “Do you remember the escaped experiments from Operation Duplicate? About thirty years ago now.”

“Heard of the project, not the fuck-up.”

“Mmm. I wasn't there, but I've read up on it. Two unfinished clones broke free and managed to escape... a few years later they were reported seen again, supposedly attacked Fuschia, then vanished after the Cinnabar Mansion blew up again. Maybe I'm on a wild Goomy chase, but... these attacks bear some resemblance to the attack on Fuschia.”

“Huh. But how likely is that? They ain't been sighted for twenty years.”