Cimitero Di Rossi - Italia Region
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Giovanni Rossi looked at the grave that marked his mother's final resting place. The massive Mediterra Mountains, pretty much always in view from anywhere in Italia thanks to their size, surrounded the white stone cemetery, and while the Rossi family owned the cemetery, other people were buried there. They were just not nearly as important, and served only to, in the eyes of the now passed Madame Boss, add to the aesthetic of the cemetery.
The people who mattered, namely the Rossi family and their favored associates, had a large portion of the area devoted to their family tombs. The only people in the area now though, were members of Team Rocket's Italia branch. Italicized red Rs were very prominently displayed on their chests, but aside from that, the Rocket uniforms were the exact same as those seen in Japan with their primarily black color.
Giovanni thought back to the last conversation he'd had with his mother, the night before. She'd been furious. She had been informed of the disaster in Paldea that Giovanni had okayed, and of the number of seasoned Rockets, trained Pokémon Hunters no less, who'd been easily captured by the Dragon Emperor. She'd cussed him out on her deathbed, raspily shrieking about how the family organization was now seen as even more of a joke by the other families in Italia.
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A dark smirk formed on Giovanni's classically handsome, older face. There was no eulogy, today. The sun was out, and it was a gorgeous, temperate Festivus Day in Italia. Giovanni finally had what he'd been waiting years to inherit, a bittersweet gift, but a good one. The family business was now completely his. After his fluke of a loss in Kanto, he'd essentially been stripped of his authority by his mother. She'd even tried to take him out of her will, but he had top lawyers from Japan already working to edit the document.
He turned to the assembled high-ranking Rockets and realized that he would have to regain their respect. "Requiescat in pace, Madre…" He said softly in his final goodbye to the woman who'd made him into the Boss he was. He had no intention of ever coming back to this place. Not while he was alive anyway. He put on his classy fedora, red and black like the rest of his outfit, in front of his mother's now sealed grave, and raised a fist. His powerful baritone rang out, loud enough for the 'forces of good' who were undoubtedly spying on them, to hear. "Madame Boss is Dead." He stated, as his smirk became a grin. "Long live Team Rocket!"
The silence that followed his words was longer than he could accept, but then, in perfect unison, the gathered Rockets answered him. "Long live Team Rocket!" Giovanni hid his reaction under the brim of his fedora, and then called in his ride. He was very much violating the many norms and traditions his people considered sacred, but he also had no Muks to give about such trivial nonsense. The gathered Rockets frowned, as his helicopter buzzed the cemetery, and dropped a ladder down to Giovanni.
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The Rocket Boss tipped his hat to his underlings, and then the ladder retracted mechanically. He climbed into the helicopter and flew away, back to the Rossi family's headquarters. They had holdings all across Italia, but their main base was a precarious estate that was connected to the region's southernmost coast by an artificial bridge that the family could raise and lower at their discretion. This bridge, and the automated electricity shooting turrets mounted atop the estate, were what kept the Rockets from worrying about the police or the International Ranger Force. Thus, it was the only one of their bases to proudly and obviously fly the italicized capital R that symbolized Team Rocket's branch in Italia.
Once Giovanni disembarked, he shifted his dark grin to the short, somewhat rotund man who'd helped his aged mother keep the organization, and her many stock options, running. It was fair to say the man was running Team Rocket as a whole, but his loyalty was to the Rossi family. "Tonio. I want you to find Fiero (Fee-eh-ro) and bring him out of stasis. Then, bring him out to the practice field, to me."
"Of course, sir. The field has already been cleared, cleaned, and prepared for training. Are there any more of your Mother's edicts we'll be breaking today?"
Giovanni was in too good of a mood to care for the man's snide tone. He, and everyone else in the Italia branch of the organization, were in mourning. Such slights could be forgiven…at least until the mourning period ended. "All of them, Tonio. Our Japan branch once again has full access and start sending over some of the Supremi we've had on standby. Our Japanese comrades are severely outmatched."
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Tonio frowned, his narrow eyes narrowing even further as he peered at Giovanni. "Giovanni, sir... The Supremi Project was suspended years ago. The ones who remain will not live much longer, and the others, well…genetic instability from the Shadow either caused their bodies to fail or made them too berserk to control."
Giovanni paused in striding down the poorly lit carpeted hallway and turned to the man. "The berserk ones…bring those down to me as well. I'll break them in on our practice field. See how far gone they are." He continued walking then, leaving the sputtering Tonio to sigh, and then do as ordered. He, at least, knew better than to question the Boss. "And summon the troops down there, as well! We need to have a little…pep rally. Send them down once they've all arrived."
The Rossi estate's training field was massive, despite the relatively little land the estate had to work with. Three League stadium sized fields jutted out from the three lower parts of the sheer cliff sides that gave the estate its vaunted protection. Covered in reinforced opaque glass that could stand up to missiles and Hyper Beams, they also sported plenty of vitamins, and items meant for making a Pokémon as strong as possible, as fast as possible.
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Tonio appeared within five minutes, and Giovanni grinned as he saw his first Pokéball. The air around him grew notably hotter as the useful servant came closer and offered him the ball. "Your Charizard, sir." Behind the man, a pair of grunts was wheeling a sealed container, designed to force massive amounts of pressure upon the Pokéballs within. This was the technology used when humankind opted to contain Pokémon who went out of control. The League had useless bleeding-heart practices, like rehabilitation into the wild, but Team Rocket had used them to contain the ultimate example of a Shadow Pokémon. Infused as eggs with Shadow Mewtwo cells, those who hatched became absurdly powerful examples of their species. Unfortunately, Shadow Mewtwo's cells had a tendency to obliterate cells that were not Shadow Mewtwo's, so the Pokémon in question hadn't lived for very long.
In Italia, Team Rocket had used them like living grenades, throwing them at police buildings or public areas, while they robbed their targets, usually banks, blind in the chaos. Eventually, Team Rocket had agreed, after being recognized as an official party within the Italia governmental structure, to cease their use of the Supremi, and to cease creating them. Giovanni hadn't been around for that, however. He'd only seen the brutal opening stages of their testing, and the impression had stuck in his long years all but exiled in Kanto.
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He tossed Fiero's ball, and after decades of being restrained, the massive Charizard roared loud enough to vibrate the air upon his release. His tail flame was only briefly orange, before it shifted to blue, with an intense white core at the tail's tip. "Fiero!" Giovanni boomed, causing the proud fire lizard to turn towards him. His eyes turned from angry to a mix of sadness and happiness. He was glad to see his Trainer, but he also saw a lifetime of evil and ambition in his dark, narrow eyes.
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Nevertheless, he approached Giovanni, who scratched under his jaw, and locked eyes with his starter Pokémon. "Hello old friend…" The two gently pressed their foreheads together. "My Mother is finally dead. You'll never have to go into stasis that long again. I swear it."
The Charizard spat a white cinder from his toothy maw at the mention of his mother, and her death. This was the reaction Giovanni had seen from most people, and her own Pokémon. With the exception of her Emolga, most people and Pokémon were glad to hear that the Crone had finally expired. "I need your help breaking in some of the Supremi." Giovanni continued. Fiero snarled, eager for a fight. "Good. Bring out the first!" Giovanni ordered.
A mechanical arm with the sealed container moved to grab one of the ornate Dark Balls and pushed it out of the unit and into the free air. Sensing the lack of pressure, the abomination of science within roared free of confinement. It was a Garchomp, but its color was off, a mix of light blue and light purple. It was a contrast with his crimson eyes that briefly flared with a familiar Shadowy tint. The Mewtwo part of its DNA was expressed through its almost comically long tail, that still had the fins of a Garchomp, but the dexterity of a Mewtwo.
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The abominable Garchomp locked eyes with Fiero and roared, but Fiero didn't wait. He was a pent-up blur and launched into a brutal Dragon Claw. The Charizard snarled as the Garchomp caught his claw, and the pair entered a brutal back and forth. Giovanni knew that strong as Fiero was, the Shadow infused Supremi would win that contest. "Dragon Toss!" Giovanni ordered.
As the Garchomp countered hard, Fiero ducked, and grabbed its rough skin with a pair of Dragon Claws that sank into its scales with ease. Then, Fiero flapped once into the air, and brought the Garchomp down hard into the earth as he lifted the abomination up and over his head in a fine example of a fighting typed move like Seismic Toss combined with Dragon Claw. The Supremi roared in fury and began digging into the field. Fiero started flying, and Giovanni noted the deep claw marks on his own leathery skin were bleeding. "Dragon Pulse." Giovanni said, knowing his starter would strike when he could.
The Garchomp surfaced, using the Dig to launch itself into flight towards Fiero. A hint of fear or maybe simple wariness appeared in its mad gaze as Fiero's raging sphere of dragon type energy shifted from dark blurple to a sparking crimson, black. In seconds the powerful orb of energy was launched at its target, making contact as the mad Pokémon flew straight into it.
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The Garchomp went sailing back hard into the ground and crashed there in a heap as it struggled to keep fighting despite the lack of HP. It gave a pitiful gurgle as Fiero and Giovanni appeared at its impact crater. "Well done, Fiero." The Boss said, scratching his partner's jaw as he eyed the very poorly trained Garchomp.
He jumped into the crater with the Garchomp, and it growled at him, trying to lift its claws to slash him in two, but too weak to do so. "You have been poorly trained." Giovanni said, testing how well the creature understood and comprehended him. "I intend to correct that incompetence." A single claw weakly raised towards him, and then hit the broken ground. The large dragon slid its unusual body towards him and tried to bite at his leg.
Giovanni rolled his narrow eyes and recalled the creature. He slid the Dark Ball back into the vacuum sealed and pressurized container. To the grunts in the room he said, "Have everyone in rows in here by the time I put these somewhere safe." Before he rolled the Supremi away himself. There were five balls in total, including the Garchomp. The other species were Electivire, Rhyperior, Midnight Lycanroc, and a Weavile.
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Giovanni brought them to his new office, and sighed as he examined the case. Then, a voice rang out from the quiet office. "What's wrong, Uncle? Feeling guilty for your part in creating those abominations?"
Giovanni smiled as his niece stepped out from the shadows. "Isabella. Look at you, all grown up. And the Champion too, I hear. Finally back from fornicating in Indius, hmm?"
A dangerous look crossed the Italia Champion's lovely features. "I heard a certain Rattata had snuck back into Italia. And lo, here you are. Scheming with the Supremi. As expected of Team Rocket's Boss."
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Giovanni simply chuckled, hands in his pockets and ready to summon Fiero if necessary. "Actually, I was thinking of sending them to your little friend in the foothills. I need them cleansed of Shadow, and I don't have time to beat them all into submission daily until their hearts open again. They'll be dead by the time they're cleansed through friendship."
Isabella glared at him. "You need a Light Wielder. If you give them to me, I can make sure the rest of their lives are free of trauma."
Giovanni paused, and then finally nodded. "At least with you, I know where they'll be." His eyes widened then, as she psychically levitated the Supremi from their case, and into the air around her. She seemed to wince a bit as they struggled for freedom, but they stayed shut by the intense red aura surrounding them. Giovanni was impressed, as he knew how much pressure was needed to keep the Dark Balls closed. "Picked up psychic powers in Indius, did you?"
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"Galar, actually." Isabella answered. The silence started to drag on for a long moment before Giovanni spoke again.
"Was there something you needed from me, niece?"
Isabella shook her head. "I came to say goodbye to Nonna. And to warn you not to Muk things up. We've finally managed to coexist somewhat with the Rockets in Italia. We don't need you and your…ambitions…throwing a Grookeywrench into our hard work."
Giovanni smirked at her. "That's a very generous 'our', Isabella. I've heard what you've been acting like, as Champion. You should return to doing as you please. It's what our family does best."
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Isabella looked like she was about to attack for a moment, when an unexpected calm came over her suddenly. She just shook her head and glared at her uncle. "You've been warned, Rocket Boss. Do not disturb the peace. You won't like what happens to you."
With that, she stormed out of his office, the Supremi still floating around her, as she made her way outside, and then promptly flew away on her Noivern.
Giovanni watched her leave and smirked to himself. Italia's Champion, from what he'd heard, was in Indius more than Italia these days. Which meant his homeland was unprotected. He strode out onto the balcony of his new office, to the sight of a Rocket Rotom Drone, and grinned. Giovanni gripped the railing, his sharp, narrow eyes staring into the Drone Rotom with the camera, while three more appeared showing him the ranks of their organization arrayed in lines on the practice fields.
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He took a deep breath, allowing the gravity of the moment to settle in. "Team Rocket," He began, his voice carrying the weight of authority, "for too long, we have played by the rules of a government that neither respects nor understands our true potential."
Murmurs of agreement and nods rippled through the ranks. He continued, his tone growing more impassioned. "We've been content to operate in the shadows, complying with regulations and avoiding the full extent of our power. But I ask you, where has that left us? In a position of subservience, caged by the very laws that we could easily bend to our will."
He paused, letting his words sink in. "The time has come to cast off these shackles. No longer will we be mere pawns in the government's game. We are Team Rocket! Our ambition knows no bounds, and our capabilities far exceed those of the Police or the Rangers."
Giovanni's eyes blazed with determination. "From this day forward, we will enter a new age of conquest and power. We will seize control of this country, bend its institutions to our will, and harness its resources to expand our reach across the globe. We will be the masters, not the servants!"
The grunts erupted into cheers, the fervor spreading like wildfire. Giovanni raised his hand for silence, and they quieted. "Our path will not be easy. There will be resistance, and we will face challenges. The first of these…will be weeding out the weak Trainers among us. As you all no doubt know, our endeavors in Japan were halted by a once in a generation Trainer with genuine skill. But his partners grew strong on the weak Trainers we used in our endeavors. If another 'Red' appears in Italia, we will crush them, before they grow stronger."
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His fists clenched the balcony rail, the Rossi family signet ring that signified his position as the Boss, or Don, as they called his contemporaries in Italia, clear on his hand. "To that end, you will pair up, and Battle until you and your teams run out of energy. Then, the Consigliere will sort you by rank. Everyone will have a part to play in this organization, but only the best will be our enforcers, and reap the rewards that come with that honor." He raised a hand then, and shouted, "Begin!"
As he watched his more competent grunts get to work, Giovanni looked out over the vista, taking in Italia's natural splendor, and Nuovo Napoli shining in the distance. He grinned. It was good to be home.