“Three minutes,” Giovanni counted again. He did a series of steps and shuffles into the dirt floor which might have been mistaken for dancing. To his team of powerful Ground-type Pokémon however, it was a complicated series of directions. The earth in front of Giovanni began receding a series of stair steps, which the Gym Leader descended. Which each step there was another shuffle, another careful shifting of weight, another signal. As if by magic the earth continued to obey its master. A laterally moving Earth Power attack closed the open space to the Gym. More Earth Powers and Hidden Powers continued to fold the world around Giovanni until he was in a small room, fully enclosed, with only Jesse’s dirty form for company.

  “Four minutes,” Giovanni finished. He took an exploratory kick at Jesse’s boot. “Wasn’t that the saying? Four minutes is the longest you can expect to survive without oxygen?”

  Jesse didn’t stir. Giovanni waited quietly for a moment, then poured some of his water across Jesse’s face. He stood back up as Jesse started to convulse, sputtering mud and hacking loose dirt out of his mouth.

  Giovanni nodded knowingly. “That’s good. I expected some in the mouth, but you held it together before any got near your lungs.” He took a swig of his water.

  Jesse was audibly breathing now, taking raggedy breaths in between retching dirt and grit. He remained sprawled, unable or unwilling to stand. Giovanni prowled around the enclosure.

  “‘Hey, Gio, congratulations on being made a Gym Leader! Hey, Gio, want to meet my son? Want to be an uncle? I don’t like the way you’re running Team Rocket! You want to fight about it?’” Giovanni mocked him. “‘Hey Gio, it’s been fifteen years since we’ve seen each other and I really think we should catch up.’” He kicked Jesse’s boot again, a little harder this time. “Schist, even Lars at least had the decency ask me to help look for Brian, and that was almost ten years ago!”

  Giovanni stopped walking and smirked. “And now here you are, bursting into my Gym and screaming my name like I just killed your best friend. BUT I’M RIGHT HERE!”

  The sudden yell echoed off the bare walls and throughout the small room. Jesse’s head throbbed.

  Giovanni crouched down and held out the rest of the water. “So, Jesse, how are you?”

  Jesse weakly brushed some dirt from his face and mustache. He hesitated. Then he reached for the water.

  Giovanni released it to him and stood up. He resumed his pacing as Jesse rinsed the dirt from his mouth and his breathing became stronger.

  “S-s-Sutter.”

  Giovanni stopped pacing. He turned quizzically. “Sutter? Old Mr. Sutter? What the crust does he have to do with anything?”

  Jesse sat up slowly, watching Giovanni carefully. “He’s one of yours. Selling your Pokémon abusers Pokémon trying to escape abuse.”

  Giovanni was half amused, half incredulous. “Did… did you just spend thirty years thinking that Old Mr. Sutter wasn’t selling Pokémon? He was selling Pokémon back when we volunteered at his ranch!”

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  “I thought he was selling them to good people.”

  “‘Good people!’ Giovanni laughed. “There are people willing to buy and people willing to sell. As long as they can meet each other the details are irrelevant. Not that you’ve ever had much head for people or business.” Jesse glared at him, but remained seated. “And what, you just decided that because he’s selling to Team Rocket, I was personally involved?” Another thought stuck the Gym Leader and he started laughing again. “Have you also spent the last FIFTEEN YEARS thinking I was personally involved in EVERYTHING Team Rocket has EVER done?”

  “Brian was seven when you took over Team Rocket, and he was always sharp kid,” Jesse growled softly. “When he started training Pokémon by himself, he told his parents he was going to make sure Team Rocket wasn’t going to be a threat to us. Then he disappeared…”

  Giovanni seized Jesse by his coat lapel and effortlessly hauled him face to face. “I had nothing to do with Brian! Don’t you understand? I have an organization that has an internal process for analyzing and responding to threats. You think Lars didn’t have the same thoughts when he met with me? Lars gets the big picture. Team Rocket is a vessel under my command. I chart the course and enjoy my time in port. I have crews to keep it working, crews to move cargo, crews to keep things clean, and officers to manage all the crews.” He released Jesse and loomed over him. “I have officers to manage officers. I have officers to manage the ports. None of them know me, and they don’t need to. They do as they are told, because they are rewarded for obedience and disciplined stepping out of line. Kind of like training Pokémon.”

  Jesse held his ground, but unsteadily. His face trembled.

  “Brian was a sharp kid, as you say,” Giovanni hissed. “If any kid could know the risks then he could. If he picked a fight with Team Rocket, and then lost, that’s on him.”

  “HE WAS THIRTEEN!” Jesse bellowed, and it was Giovanni’s turn to wince at the echo. He stepped back. “Just like his brother is now.”

  Giovanni’s face clouded as he did the math in his head. “Lars didn’t mention that.”

  Jesse’s face trembled with fury. Giovanni did more math. He sighed. “Thirteen would be about the right age to start the supervised Gym circuit that the League is rolling out in a few days. And your son would be about that age? He sighed again. “And of course the League would love to have one of their former Champions go over the route ahead of time.”

  Giovanni suddenly shifted his weight again and Jesse felt the ground give way once more. This time it closed around his middle, covering his Pokeballs. “And I’ll bet someone in my organization had the bright idea to get involved? Then you got burnt at Old Mr. Sutter’s? No wonder you went Maggie!”

  The Team Rocket Boss knelt in front of his former rival, so that they were eye to eye. “Here’s the deal. I’m going to let you leave. I will not send Team Rocket after you. I will not sink your little township to the bottom of the sea. I won’t tell Katherine that you decided to put everyone’s lives at risk by exposing my private life to the general public. In exchange, you will not expose my private life to the general public. You can fight Team Rocket all you want, you won’t do any lasting harm, and if you get close enough they’ll kill you eventually. You can challenge me as a Gym Leader all you want, if you really think beating me a few times will affect the organization as a whole. If you break this deal, then I WILL send Team Rocket after you. I WILL sink your little township. And I will tell your wife that you did something stupid.”

  Jesse’s brow furrowed. Giovanni slumped. “Okay, how about this way. Pretend nothing happened. Ask Lars what “status quo” means.”

  “I know what it means.”

  “Then what’s the…”

  “I don’t see how that’s actually a deal, if we’re pretending that nothing happened.”

  “The deal is: I won’t interfere with your fun playing family, and you won’t interfere with my fun with, well, everything I do. Because I could leave you buried- some of the older Senior Executives would love for you to be gone- but I don’t have to.”

  Giovanni stood up again and resumed his shuffling signals. “And if I don’t have to, then I don’t want to. That’s power you’ll never get just by training Pokémon. Oh, before you go, Nidoking!”

  The purple, spiked Poison/Ground type Pokémon unburrowed from the wall next to Jesse.

  “Thunder Punch!”

  Electricity crackled from the Nidoking’s claws and the impact jarred Jesse to his bones. He yelled in pain as the energy from the attack shivered over his body, coursed through his systems, and then dissipated into the ground.

  Giovanni winked at him. “I doubt you’re sufficiently up with the times to know anything about electronic recording devices, but I’m not going to take any chances. On your way now. And don’t forget to actually visit sometime!”

  The earthen sky opened above them, and Golem was deposited unceremoniously into their enclosure with a heavy thud, fainted. Jesse’s eyes widened; he hadn’t noticed any signs of combat above them. He recalled his ace. The floor of the space began to rise like an elevator, Giovanni’s Ground Pokemon using their Earth Power attacks in careful concert, until the Viridian Gym was once again made whole.

  As if in a daze, Jesse stumbled out of the Gym, blinking heavily in the sunlight. The sun was high, and it illuminated the cloud of dust that he was now carrying with him. For the third time that day, he pulled out Alakazam’s Pokeball.

  Gengar and the boys were not quite how he had left them, but they were well enough. They had formed a small circle and were shouting encouragements at two colorful forms running back and forth.

  “What…” Jesse coughed, then continued more strongly. “What’s this? What are you doing?”

  Dillon glanced brightly over at his father, ignored the dirt and pebbles and replied, “Oh, hi, dad. Owen’s Squirtle is practicing its Tackle attack!”