Pokémon Roost, a gift fic

[K_S]

She’d had one… one bad episode in public. Well sorta public. There’d been an ice ring attached to the school gym, nearest to the lockers and changing rooms. It was a seasonal thing, inflicted on the students in the summer to make their exercise curriculum “different”. As it was Green had missed it her first semester, but come the second, they’d had a day with no gym classes and then the grand unveiling of her school's pet indulgence. An Indoor ice rink …

And Green, she hadn’t prepared, in her head or out of it, for this. Which was stupid, so so stupid…

She had thought, (prayed even), that her folks would have the kindness, the sense, to pull her out of gym for a term. Make her take some biology classes or something. When she realized they weren’t going to she’d begged them, volunteered to take the nastiest classes with dissections and everything, and… nothing...

They hadn’t budged, with Mask being a “delusion” and everything, seen a problem. Just them helping her face an “unreasonable” phobia head-on.

The clang of metal doors and the chill of an overenthusiastic AC system was enough to set her nerves to jangle. But the fact that she’d been ordered, not asked, not nodded along and accidentally shenghighed into this, but ordered, to be here had scaled her nerves up from mere irritant to a near omnipresent pressure about her shoulders. Anxiety started as a pressure, that shifted into an itch under her skin, and Green knew not to scratch at her back.

Because once she started, she’d never stop, just be frozen, chaffing and scratching at ice that wasn’t there, choking on screams while she fought to not cry.

Slumping onto a bench, the solid near warm metal helped her remember, she was here, not there… but she didn’t want to be here and..

And she was curled into herself, rocking a little, and that’s how she’d been found.

The adult may have freaked out a bit. Her crying, coiled, lack of response, was understandable. But with time, and gentle nudges, Green was coaxed up… away from the lockers, the halls. Her peers, jeered out, had swung to indifference and shuffled off to their ice skating class, content to leave her behind for more entertaining things.

She hadn’t been missed until roll call; the person who found her had been an Aide…

But those were facts for later.

Green’s world was felled to memories, and she got reality back in stages. The sun warmed cement on her back, the crackle of pavement as she was eased down to sitting on the edge of the sidewalk, the gym doors a world away. She tilted he head to the sun, looking up at it until a hand nudged her, coaxed her to look down. Green did, following orders out of habit, ignoring the babble of hurting her eyes; she stared unthinkingly at the bit of pavement between her legs. Breathing air that was warm, a bit muggy, and nothing like Mt. Mortar or her cell.

“Back with us now?”

She seemed a nice woman, the aide, and Green nodded, not looking at her, just trying to breathe. The woman a bright-colored blur at the edge of her sight, her hands splayed then clenching and splaying against the cement beside her, Green timed her breathing to each motion until the blurriness and tears stopped.

“Feeling like going back in, Green?”

No, never.

Gravel scraped, the aide shifted beside her, in seeming solidarity though the woman’d never get it and Green was sorta suspicious that she’d try to coax her with the “rest of the class” to “just watch” if Green gave her any leash.

“Can I… have some space… I… I need to call… them.”

She couldn’t get anything out more affectionate. Picking up the pieces of her composure, facts and situation had his just right and… and after this something was broke, irreparably, and she wanted to cry, her voice warbled, but the loss wasn’t a new thing.

This was just the realization that, at this moment, the rift between her and them was irreparable.

There weren’t enough "sorry"s to fix this, and honestly, Green didn't want to hear it.

“I’m sorry sweetie, I don’t have a cell phone…”

And her’s wouldn’t work, even if she confessed to having it, anti-tech school clause and all that.

Scanning the parking lot, the brunette jerked her head, some distance away was a payphone… and while tight spaces weren’t great it’d be hot, stifling so, so she’d be… well a bit better than going back at least.

“I can use that…” Then, even though she had the money, some habits were just that hard to break… “Can I borrow some change? I can call them from there and...”

And she’d be seen, visible, and it’d only take one-moment inattention or Jiggly sent out to slip behind the woman, and Green’d be gone. But first, she wanted her call.

“Of course dear, here you go.”

“Thanks,” Green took the coins and tipped a small smile at the woman beside her. She was pretty, in a not-quite old sort of way, though she had too many flowers on her shirt, and that flower beret was a bit much. Still, there were smile lines about her lips, and Green felt a hair guilty, just not guilty enough to change her plans about knocking her out. “Be right back.”

XXX

“Ice skating,” Green’d been vibrating, furious from head to toe, near seeing red once again. And only Mask and Giovanni had gotten her that mad before. Them… that was a new low, and this call was honestly an exercise to see how deep They were going to dig the hole than to get a resolution or promises to change… or anything really. Just a sentimental handover, Mask’d beat her for it.

“To help you with your phobia, dear, remember?” It’d been a wonder She had picked up, on the second ring even, which made this call expected, anticipated.

“I remember saying I didn’t want to.”

“And sometimes we have to do things we don’t want to.” She snipped back.

“You mean that phobia about the guy you don’t believe in who liked to lock me up in a freezer, Mask?”

“Whatever the source, Mask, or otherwise…”

Green slumped against the wall of the booth, ignoring the grimy feeling of the not too clean grass, soaking up the near burning warmth of the metal edge, the phone’s cord taunt before her. To that temptation, Green twanged it with a restless hand, even as she unshipped Jiggly’s pokeball from her belt with the other. The phone tucked against her chin.

“You only remember what you want, when it’s convenient, to you.” The girl accused, tone flat, previous anger draining away into resignation. “Nothing I say matters, doesn’t it?”

Nothing was going to change, why did she think it was going to get better in time? Why did she have to be so stupid?

“Green this is ridiculous, you’re supposed to be in class.”

Getting immersed in trauma that Green didn’t want to deal with, not that She cared. Not that She responded to the real question.

“I’ll see you at home.” Green huffed. They’d only see her if She or He were very very lucky, but whatever…. Green owed no one nothing, and she should have kept it that way.

“Stay after class and I’ll have your Dad swing by and pick you u-“

Hanging up, Green huffed a laugh she was sure She hadn’t heard. Stay. After school. Yeah, that’d be a no. She cracked open the door and flicked Jiggly’s pokeball, summoning the fluff ball as she stepped out of the telephone booth, Green swiped at her eyes, straightened her shoulders, and cracked the teacher’s aide a near friendly smile.

Well, Green figured she’d get herself expelled, somehow someway, might as well get it over with.

XXX

They left the door unlocked because of course, they did. Green shrugged off her backpack as soon as she got in, dumped its contents into the trash, and trooped upstairs. She’d fallen out of the habit of having a complete getaway bag on hand but kept the essentials, getaway money, her trainer’s license, and the like, in one spot. A quick check under the dresser confirmed the flat taped envelope was unbothered, the dust confirmed it, and she peeled it off, taking a moment to shake it off, before slitting the package. A quick tally and there was everything accounted for. She put that into her backpack and pulled open her closet. She packed her sturdiest clothes, skipping most of her dresses, for hiking gear, long-legged, extra padding, things built to last and take damage. Warm things, a few light things for variety, Silver’s coat and scarf and gloves he’d sent along via Giovanni, and a hat, not her lucky one, just something big and a bit shapeless to cover her head and help with sunburn. She took a moment to loos spares, spare sunscreen, spare toothpaste, and she snapped up an unopened toothbrush, and her hairbrush and some towels and rags and… things were looking a bit full. So she took one of His old camping satchels and used the extra space to raid the pantry. Taking cans and dried things from the back, tightening the rows in the front so the loss wouldn’t be so obvious. Then, because They hadn’t thought she knew, but she did, she helped herself to their “secret” money stash for emergencies. Tarps and ropes and stakes were the last thing to go in, she popped those on top, to give some protection for her food from the wet and zipped the bag up. She could lift it, and walk with both on, though slowly, but she wasn’t going to be carrying it long term, and worse come to worse she had enough in her backpack to replace anything in the satchel.

Packing done, she dropped her bag and backpack by a chair in the living room, tucked out of easy view beside a back chair, and paced a bit, trying to get her racing thoughts in order. She had an hour, perhaps two, unless someone panicked and came home early. But barring that and considering Giovanni’s tales, of search Sharkpedo and Arcanine, Green decided to muddy the trail a bit. She snapped up the rest of her clothes and shoveled them into trash bags, stripping the bed, bundling the pillows, stuffies, anything and everything she’d touched, owned, and loaded down with everything with her scent and psychic traces she called Blasty and Jiggly and they made a quick donation to the local homeless shelter. They had a self-donate sector, unsupervised, and without cameras because… well it was shady. Not Rocket shady.

But Green had to wonder a bit…

Regardless she had privacy and she used it to shovel everything of hers deep and in the back. Between being jumbled with everyone else’s stuff her scent, psychic auras, and whatever was used to track would be a blur. If things took long enough her stuff would be sorted and passed out or put on the shelf, and all the better.

She did keep one stuffie, a teddiursa Yellow’d gotten her at that street fair that one time, that got privilege spot pinned to her backpack when she nipped to their home one final time and set that up, recalled Jiggly and consulted the clock. Half an hour before He got off from his new job, there was just a little more time to plant a few more false leads. Popping open the computer, unpassworded again… Really They were being beyond stupid with this… Green flipped through a few travel sites. Made it look like she was studying routes to Johto, checking ship times, and shipments from companies, she left a bit of a hurried trail that might be damning if she were going to Surf to Johto.

Good thing Kanto was nearly as close by.

The only tell she left of her real plants was to dig up a multinational weather and storm report that showed Kanto and Johto. She’d needed some information after all… Then, because she was feeling petty she flipped into his email.

And froze, as again she was shocked. She skimmed through a few, then screw it, and the computer's camera if it caught her, she flipped open her phone and brought up Giovanni’s number. She texted, not wanting to risk his voice being recorded.

“They’re trying to commit me,” she typed in the name from the acceptance letter that’d been on the top of the ‘mail. Autocorrect made a mess of it, so she snapped a picture and sent him that. Because this… this was something they hadn’t planned for. Police incarceration, an intervention, perhaps house arrest, but a mental facility? Green wasn’t going to get caught by people who had the right to drug her brainless because the second her parents had signed that paper they were divesting Green of her Team, her rights, and a quick dig through the letter stated her stay was going to be “indefinite” with “long chemical and electrical based treatments approved for the purpose of reverse brainwashing”.

“Pickups tonight.” And Green was trying not to shake, not to just call and yell at him to get her out of this, right now. Make everyone forget or disappear her right now because this.. this was too much.

Green could hear a car approaching, time was up, just as she was about to slip her phone away it hummed. She flipped it open.

He’d set her a date and time for extraction, ordering her to go to the “boxed” beach for pick up. So clearly this was going to be a Rocket thing, not a gym leader thing. Wonderful. His tabbed on a promise to get her out if she couldn’t avoid the police or medical authorities didn’t hold the assurance he’d get her Team, so getting caught wasn’t an option.

But not getting caught, Green could last a few days, maybe three weeks with her supplies and luck, so… no problem.

Green read the message, memorized it, then deleted her history and shoved the phone into her pocket. There came footsteps up to the door, and she waited, no point in running off without her supplies. Padding up to her backpack she slung it on. Then leaning on the chair beside her other bag she waited, listened. It was… his voice he was talking to someone. “I’m glad you agreed to meet with me before I picked her up and brought her around... I had some questions…”

So this was why he was going to pick her up? She almost drew Blasty then and there, only held back by a hair. The door opened and she saw him and his back was towards her, leading someone else in. She saw a white, stereotypical coat and name tag and company name stitched in the left breast pocket. Dr. Anderson, Green read, and the good doctor was more observant than he was but then he was the type of man who had trouble talking and walking all at once. So, understandable.

“Mr Azule is that…”

“Your patient?” Green sneered the rest of the thought, near spitting. And hating herself and how her eyes flicked to her father. Cataloging each and every one of his features she shares with him. Just… not able to stop. And she’s praying the man will show some remorse, shame, to flinch, or something.

And for her expectations she got nothing save a moment’s startlement and a warm smile in response to her less than warm words.

“Green, honey, you got out early today?”

“No, I left.” She looks pointedly at the doctor. Over the doctor, there’s motion at the windows. Probably aides and orderlies, bulky types with bulky ‘mon to take her and her team out of she fought against the pickup. “I’m leaving. I gave you how many months, I trusted you with my best friend, my little brother… and for what? Nothing, that’s what. Fat lot of good you’ve done for me or him. I’m done.” Snapping a glare at the doctor she snarled. “Get you and your friends out of my way or I don’t care what happens.”

And he he is frozen in shock, the Doctor eases in, sidling to the side, making Green have to pick a target and Green…. Hates herself for admiring the move a little bit. But the feeling’s there… And the Doctor, Anderson, is soft-spoken and trying to soothe her. This doesn’t need to get ugly, she’s sick, and…

“I didn’t do this…” Green gestures to her face, to the thin lines around her face because having something iced o your face will do that. And no matter how she grows her hair, styles it, she can see it in every reflection. Green rolls up a sleeve, pointedly not showing her knife off, flashing her off arm and its broad bars of off-colored skin. “This wasn’t self-inflicted. You can’t ice-claw yourself. I don’t consent and I’m an emancipated minor because I still have my trainer’s license and earn income through battling. Which a call from the league can verify. I only lose it the second I willingly go with you, and I don’t. So. Get.Out.”

And there’s an orderly and she can see a yellow and black striped electabuzz and fuck, of course, they’d have electric types. Her trainer profile said she favored water and…

And she drew Blasty, barking out an order, and the earth split under the force of an untampered earthquake, knocking everyone off their feet and leaving a fissure on the floor and jags in the wall. The house wasn’t a battle arena after all. Blasty, who was more than braced, didn't take a tumble and Green was up in a second, held up by one of his paws.

Pipes ruptured, gushing stinging pillars, some at her, some at them, and though soaked, Green smirked at the fallen and flailing and she could kinda see why people did crappy things like join Team Rocket. Swinging her other pack, around Blasty’s neck, Green swung up on the turtle and flashed orderlies and doctors and him her best Mask of Ice smile, the one that burned and promised those around her that they would too.

“Surf!”

And every source of water shifted and surged, overflowing and roiling. From sink to pipes even the toilets, they overflowed and surged to form a wall in front of Blasty. Then the ‘mon made tidal wave did what water normally did, and surged ahead, throwing the debris, human and otherwise out of the paths of least resistance and taking out a few windows while it was at it.

“Hydro canon us out the back.” She growled, not wanting to risk having missed a ‘mon or orderly with a stun gun or something. And while they could just take the door, Green didn’t want to risk withdrawing Balsty, something, somehow, getting the drop on her in some unforeseen way. And since Blasty couldn’t manage the Azule home’s doors… they’d make their own. “We’ll take off from the yard.”

They were gone in seconds, leaving nothing but ruins behind them.

 

[K_S]

It was scarily easy to fall to old habits. Break and enter, oldest hat there was. She picked a hotel that was cheap more than anything else, with wide halls that were able to be seen by a nearby tree and a lack of cameras. Once the cleaner finished with the top floors and head down Green used Jiggly to flit from her perch to the farthest room, and though Jiggly bobbled a bit she was able to hold a pattern level with the window long enough for Green to pry it open and get herself in. Inside she re-summoned Jiggly and let the puffball get a nap in while Green called dibs on the shower. Once clean, she wrapped up the cuts she hadn’t noticed in her flight from their place, draped her old clothes to dry in the shower, and settled in something soft and warm all the better to comb Jiggly while the fuzzy Marshmellow napped. After an hour or so she shook Jiggly awake and took her turn at a nap.

While it wasn’t fully rested, she felt a bit better, a bit calmer, when she woke. Repacking her stuff, it was as easy to break out as it was to break in. Three controlled falls later and they were set and Green was waddling down the street with her too big packs and thinking up regular things. Places to set up camp, not on the beach, she wasn’t that stupid, but somewhere that trainers and police wouldn’t think to go.

She picked an old building that was going to be “completed soon”, it’s lack of footprints, cig butts, and discarded lunches affirmed that “soon” was probably a lie. But what was one more lie when it was useful? After another span of letting Jiggly fly the heavier packs up, then herself, they had… well a nest Green guessed. It wasn’t much; steel beams as a ceiling, partially completed walls, and a floor more holes than anything else. Still, people didn’t think to look up, except bird watchers, and Sevii had nothing but winggul. And winggul didn’t like to perch so far away from their sandy nests, so no worries. Green covered the floor with a tarp, making the nook look a little more homely, and settled in to get a start on dinner before the sun dropped too low for her to really see anything.

Because she wasn’t using light up here, not for anything, not unless she had to get down in a hurry. Piling Nido’s food in a neat pile, dried berries and protein nibbles, and the like, she let the ‘rina dig in. The rest of her team had had breakfast and so long as she kept them in their pokeballs they wouldn’t have to eat until tomorrow, but since Nido’ was going to be on guard duty better to feed her now than later, and it’d be a treat for a potentially sleepless night since Green’d splurged and swiped some sugar packets from the hotel and sprinkled it on Nido’s pile.

“Rin rin!”

“Welcome.” Patting the poison type on the head Green settled her packs like the most awkward pillows ever and settled in, and on whim flipped opened her phone.

Huh, two missed calls, one from Yellow and one from Silver. A quick stint of “ink-a-bink, inkay in mink” led to her finger over Silver’s number, so she called him back first.

“Hi Sil’.” And she was able to speak normally, not to whisper and look over her shoulder and Arceus was that nice. Blinking back stinging warmth behind her eyes Green smiled, aches and pains a step removed. “How was your day, do anything interesting?”

And he was so happy, because with a lead in knew he could talk, and he clearly was itching too and so he plowed into it. About his day, and his newest prank and Green could imagine him bouncing and gleeful and…

“Holy Sweet Arceus… you didn’t…”

But he’s been humming that song because it was in his head, which meant he had…

And suddenly Green wasn’t too thrilled about her extraction, and sorta wished her parents could have held off their crazy for like… a week, week and a half…

But he had pictures and…

“Can you send me the video?”

“Yeah, hold on a second.’

And of course, he lost the call while doing it, still, the files come in and she’s popped them open, playing them at half volume while she’s sifting through her travel bars while Nido’ finishes her dinner besides her. Green’s waffling on strawberry vanilla or choco-peanut butter crunch when he calls back. They both taste like cardboard, gummy cardboard, but the crunch is a bit bitter and she’s in the mood for bitter she decides.

“Awww… so his Rhyhorn’s super friendly.” Green cooed, between bites. The Silver on her small screen has snapped up something small off of Giovanni’s league desk and is playing fetch with the ground type “accidentally” trashing the man’s room all the while.

“I have no idea why he has that thing on guard duty.” Silver sniggered, “It’s really agile for a rock type though… see it does that spin thing in the air…”

More like a double axel, a meld of rollout and a jump that a Persian might do, not a rhyhorn.

“You did not… Silver… what have I said about rubbing strange ‘mon’s on the belly?”

“He was friendly!” The redhead wined. “And he kept whimpering when I didn’t… and…”

And Silver was whimpering, just a little bit and… “Well so long as it wasn’t his Rhydon…” Green folded.

She’d seen Rhydon try to crush Blue, and while Green didn’t like Blue, she’s seen the ‘mon try to kill another kid. And there was something in her that felt sick just thinking about Silver being near it.

Silver’s following silence is a bit worrying and Green really really missed her newer phone, the one that would let her see who she was talking to.

“Silver, you didn’t play with Giovanni’s Rhydon when it was on league guard duty, right?”

“Noooo… He only had his Rhyhorn as his “ceremonial guard” for his workstation. There weren’t even people guards around, which was weird.”

And probably planned, Green wondered what Yellow’d said to tip Giovanni off on the “prank”.

“Alright.” That was good, right? “So what did you play with?”

“So… Surge had a cage of joltiks in his office and Yellow felt bad for them because they were hungry and sad and… We opened the cage… well I dropped it… and they got out and.. well we thought there were like five or so…But the others were really really shy I guess. And, well they squealed and skittered over me and Yellow as thanks and um… they went into the wiring and sockets and computers and… I lost count after… fifty of them?”

“Sil’.” Green groaned, flopping into her packs; hand over her face, blushing from secondhand embarrassment. Because rookie mistake number one was, playing with a targets pokemon. And while Green could understand playing with Rhydon -it was a bit cute for a ground type- but Joltik? Really?

“But we were able to get them to break Lance’s door and we fed them Sabrina’s brand new computer to keep them out of the speakers and stuff when we set up Lance’s computer to.. you know… play the song.”

“The song stuck in your head, right now?”

“Yeah….” Silver groaned the confession.

“You know Giovanni’s going to ground you for like the rest of your life for infesting the Kanto League with parasitic electric roaches, right?”

“Yellow said that too. Even though it was her idea, but… I.. I didn’t want to ask her but… what’s grounding? It’s not like… that exercise Mask did, with the rocks and the pit and we had to dig out or he’d leave us buried, right?”

Only Ditty’s ability to shift to a shovel had saved them. Snea’s claws were too soft, not fully frozen which made sense since she wasn’t more than three at the time and shouldn’t have been away from her parents in the wild, Jiggly had been too young to properly puff… that “exercise” had been scary.

And luckily was nothing like grounding…

And she told him, soothing his fears and he’d huffed about how stupid grounding really sounded.

“They just take nice things away?”

“Yeah to make you think about what you did, less distractions and more chores, especially the ones they don’t want to do themselves. I had to clean out a grill once, an outdoor cooking one and...”

And had Silver ever ate anything off of a grill before? Green tried to remember, kicking one foot idly into the floor as she went down memory lane, and figured it was a no. Something to set up then. She was old enough to do the burning charcoal thing and set the food up properly, and if not they could swipe a Charmander or something to do it for them.

That sounded like fun.

“Sooo… I got a new ‘mon…”

“Alright, what’d you catch, you overachiever?” Green laughed.

“Well, I found one in my hair after we left….”

“Silver… you did not bring home a joltik.”

“Yellow’s home, not mine…And she’s got nine of them, they’re out eating at some neighbor’s house who keeps blasting his music too loud. I gotta pick them up around midnight to bring them back so they don’t get caught.”

Clearly Green’s being a bad influence here, and… and she’s not minding it in the slightest, not really.

“Silver, they can’t even attack anything, they’re like… itty bitty.” And she’s pinching her fingers even though Silver’s not there.

“I’m going to train mine to hide in my pockets and bite people who go for my wallet.”

And… that didn’t sound like a bad idea. Not at all.

“So how was your day?” And Silver’s calm and happy and Green’s tempted to lie. But he’ll catch her, sooner rather than later, and Green’s sorta hating that she’s going to make his day worse by being honest. Really, her life is just a case against honesty. The more she sees it in action, the less she likes it.

“Pretty bad, thanks for the videos, they helped. Hey, what’d Yellow name it?”

“Jojo…” Something chirrups in the background and Silver’s talking to the joltik Green’s sure. “It’s pending… and stupid and… not your name. You aren’t jojo, I’m going to find a cool name and name you that one we get you to the ‘center and figure out if you’re a boy or a girl.”

Another chirp, it’s like listening to static gargle. Then there’s interference and Green’s sure Silver just rolled over.

“Alright, so bad, how?”

“Well, I got expelled.” And Green’s kicking one foot and Silver can hear it if that hurmph means anything.

“Congratulations… you hated that school. That’s what the gloves were for. The coat was for passing whatever you wanted to pass, the scarf for failing whatever you wanted to fail, and the gloves are for getting expelled. Did you punch that really snooty viridian fat cat girl in chem?”

“No, I had Jiggly sing a teacher to sleep and slipped off.”

“Oh.” He sounded disappointed a bit. “But I thought you wanted to really punch that purugly girl who shoved that boy with the crutches around until he was crunched into a locker?”

Alright, so Green may have brought it up, five or six times, but… it felt like an opportunity lost thinking about it now. Still, to quote Yellow, life kinda had happened and…

So Green tells Silver everything, and the only thing she’s sorry about is how much of a bad mood it puts him in.

“They deserve worse.” Silver snarls, sounding as mad as she’d been. Reminding her of Giovanni a little bit, when he’d yelled at them. Right now Green’s more tired than anything and once she’s safely gone she sorta thinks the rest of the anger is going to go away.

They lost her, and while they could lose other things losing her was the biggest loss in their lives though they’d never know that. And were all the more fools for that.

Green can hear the wheels turning. Mask had always said there was something innately malicious about Silver. Mask had hit him and hurt him and let others do so to bring his “potential” out, or rather he’d tried. But Silver was one of those types that curled around his own hurts and wouldn’t say a word. It’d never crossed that old fool's head to hurt Green, granted if he had Silver’d of tried to kill Mask and then Green’d of been burying Silver.

Silver’s… badness… as it were, was something they had both discovered once they were out of Mt Mortar, a trainer had tried to pin Green down and wasn’t making sense. Really hadn’t made a lick of it. But Green hadn’t liked him, his closeness, his touching, and she’d yelled at him to get off and he hadn’t. The man had tried to get a grip on her throat to “shut her up”.

Silver’d moved faster than Sneasel that time. And while a little melted his ice knife had worked, well had worked after the fifth swing. When the body had stopped moving they’d had a long talk, about how to do things better so there was less blood because Green knew this even if Silver hadn’t. And then they’d cleaned up and then after picking the pockets had left the body for whatever ate whoever on Mt. Mortar. Some hiking had led them to find the trainer’s camp and they had stayed in his camp for few days, eating his rations, before moving on and taking his blankets with them.

“No ice knifing.” She scolded because it’s the first thing that’d going to pop into Silver’s head, she knows it. “Really Sil’ once I’m gone… I’m never going back and… they lose me, losing anything else is just… overkill. And it’s more effort than they deserve.”

“Yeah,” and that hard anger in his voice is dimming. “You are the best after all.”

“Yep, and don’t you forget it!”

“Ok so… I know Yellow’s sorta telling F- Giovanni about you know.. the things I’m doing but… You think there’s a way you can find out how grounded I am when he gets you off of Sevii? I figure if I hide that long I can avoid being instantly grounded when he runs into me or something?”

“Sorry Silver, the grounding starts when you get home, staying out late makes it worse.”

“Ung, why are parents so… so weird?”

Well, Green didn’t have a good answer for that so they both fall quiet, Nido’s snuggled close and enjoying her chin tickles if her scrunched-up eyes meant anything. Then… it’s soft… quiet… and so very familiar… Silver’s humming, a stiff sort of embarrassed hum that meant…

“It’s still stuck in your head, isn’t it? The song?”

“Yes! It’s been hours….”

“You know, if you spin it like that… that you had to suffer a lot too… maybe make it sound like the song was Yellow’s idea, you might be able to make Giovanni not ground you for forever. You might even be able to scale it down for like, a month or something.”

“A month?”

“You infested the indigo plateau with little electric roach ticks Silver. Yeah, I’m guessing a month here. At least. Might be more. I mean aren’t Sabrina and him dating?”

“No, no they aren’t.” Silver sounds horrified, and after a mental rewind, Green’s sorta too and regretting quoting that tabloid she read. Sabrina has mental birds that she inflict on people her being with anyone else could lead to the possibility of there being more people with mental birds in their heads to throw at people and… Green’s snuggling Nido just from that thought alone.

“Alright, they aren’t dating.” Green ruled.

“Or together or anything else gross like that…” And it’s quiet as both of them consider that horrifying thought and the realization that they’re both running out of things to say that aren’t sappy or silly and then Green remembers, with a wince, that shes’ going to have to find an unwatched socket to charge her phone, so she probably shouldn’t let it go too low and it’s at seventy right now…

“I probably should…”

“Hey, do you think you can ask him about you know.. my Mom?”

And ohh boy is Green not even going to promise anything about that… Because that sounds like walking up to a tauros covered in red ribbons and flags and capes and kicking it in the face if all the red fluttering didn’t make it go berserk. Yeah, no, Silver can ask that question all on his own…

“I really need to go…”

“But could you?”

“Wow it’s going red, gotta go, bye Silver talk to you tomorrow!”

Green hangs up, it’s not a good save, or an elegant one… but it’d do for now.

XXX

“What’s wrong?”

Giovanni had stormed off, and after a while and there being no yelling or him returning Sevii’s mayor had hunted him down out a mix match of curiosity and boredom. She’d found him beside the mens’ bathroom, making incoherent noises in the back of his throat. Back stiff, gaze riveted on his phone, strangling on sheer indignation.

Which considering everything was.. Distinctly odd.

He’d warned her when they started their outing, after recalling his Kangaskaun that was going to be carrying no one, thank you, that he might have a “family” emergency. And she’d understood. Until a quick polygon one search had affirmed he’d had no living family that he was on speaking terms with, and she’d confronted him about it.

She’d been a bit hurt until he’d confessed to the utter insanity of his personal life.

Of a son thought dead, found, abducted by a mad man and utterly poisoned against him as his abductor had been a Johotian Xenophobe with a slant for ice types.

And no wonder the scene at the restaurant had been so... borderline violent…

Her heart softened as she listened to his present campaign of how he was trying to use the boy’s friends to get him to warm, first to civilization, to trying to live a more mundane life… than to perhaps meeting him. Making some sort of relationships. The results thus far had been made with decidedly mixed if the disaster with his first friend, a Green, had gone as badly as Giovanni had hinted.

And like all doting parents he’d actually had a few stills of his boy, security camera stills, but… it was the thought that counted… right?

He was leaning against the wall, biting on a hand to keep from articulating… horror… rage? She couldn’t tell. And taking her life in her hands Sevii’s mayor eased the phone down so she could see, he limply going along with the pressure.

She’s seeing a hall… with a carpet of dancing yellow.. joltick rise from the floor to spell out lyrics in time to music that’s pounding though the phone's speaker, a rather irritating song that she only sorts of recalls….

The scene shirted to a guard Rhyhorn following the boy from the stills like a happy puppy, Silver, she assumes, tossing something and the beast is bounding down the hall leaving craters and…

There’s a doduo running amuck in a room, bouncing off walls and crowing…

And there’s a whole hall iced and snowmen and the view flicks again to another disaster, a door ajar, papers scattered far and wide serving as carpeting, silly string looking like fangs from the entryway and before she can focus on the room in full he’s closed his hands over the phone and killed the image.

“Oh my God.” Because he hasn’t said anything but looks seconds from losing his mind… “…I think your son’s friends need help with that whole taming him and bringing him back to civilization thing…”

And he’s still not responding.

So Sevii’s mayor does the only sane thing she can think to do. She takes his arm and leads him out of the gallery before his delayed reactions break and he causes some social disaster all his own. It’s a bit, she thinks, like walking an explosion happy voltorb, one fond of making high-pitched strangling noises.

 

[K_S]

AN: Need to run through gramerly


Green alternated between construction sites, hotels, and abandoned apartments. Steering clear of the beaches, only nipping into small mom and pop fish markets to get fresh feed for Blasty, because he’d earned it. She even bought it, skipping her usual means of stealing, because… well the emergency money and this was one, just not how they intended it. Glasses and a hat his most of her features, and she’d slicked her hair to the side instead of leaving it down or in a braid like normal, another layer, and she was set to mingle for short spans. So mingle she did, getting the odd and end supplies and since it was an odd day it was Blasty’s treat day, so off she went to the fish market.

Pushing open the door of one without a camera, it jingled at her coming, she looked around. It wsa the same as the two others she’d visited. Hanging fish, and boxes of unshelled cloyster, there was only a counter at the front, a block of knives and a slew of papers, and that was it for the front desk. A radio played form some corner, set to a music station, slow and old without chatter, still she kept an ear towards it just in case some blurb about a missing girl kicked in.

“Wha’ can I get for you?” The clerk grumbled, before she wandered up, looking up from her previous interest, a magikarp on a hook, eyes cloudy, gutted and salted and reeking in a way that screamed too old to safely ear. Green smirked at the man, amused, because he probably was noticing that she was noticing his falsehood and was a bit surely about it.

Well the “freshest caught fish in Sevii” sign out at the front was a bit of false advertising since all Sevii had was shellfish, unless the ‘karp was farmed, but this wasn’t that type of place.

“I’d like to get eight pounds of slivered Cloyster please.”

Because Sevii only had Cloy’s and Shell’s, and Cloy had a higher nutritional value than Sellders, though it tasted a bit worse for the extra calcifications in the ‘mons body. Making any cooking with it tedious as the boneless things had spurs on it’s rim, where shell spikes were rooted and connected to the nerve system so special attacks could be a thing. Not that many non-trainers knew or cared about that, they just wanted an easy dinner.

Still, Blasty loved crunchy things, and Cloy’s were cheap because most people didn’t want to do the extra deboning, so win-win for Green.

He named a price per pound, she accused him of being a Rocket because that was the price for a deboned-Seaking fillet, and did she look like Mayor what’s-her-name?

“You going to argue or you going to buy?”

Green whipped off the sign for the Seaking section, because it was paper, and flimsy, and trooped it over. "See, same price. I could rent a slowpoke from a professional breeder, take it fishing, and after it evolved get a shelder, a slowpoke tail, and it’d be… like nine dollars cheaper.”

And the clerk’s lips were twitching. “Probably.”

“So how about we start at the beginning and say… five dollars per pound?”

“Well considering its six….”

The man had a funny way of talking. Like the man who’d buy what Green’d snatch off of tourists back when she sold off most of what she’d stolen. So her Rocket jab was a bit of a test. The man behind the counter, no name tag, and a bit of a swagger to go with the words, maybe passed, maybe didn’t.

If this was Rocket joint Giovanni needed to get a hobby besides taking everything over. After all, what could you do with a fish shop?

Then Green considered the block of knives, and a back she couldn’t really see, and decided she didn’t want to think about that too much.

She read the papers that he splayed her cuts on. Nothing about missing children, her or otherwise. She listened to the radio, and more of the same, just music and static. Granted the papers were day before, but…

But she wondered, about why she wasn’t hearing anything, in the news, in the papers. She wondered if the medical people had called the league and her papers had rung true, or if they hadn’t cared enough to report her missing…

That last thought made something in her chest go tight and she swallowed, tried to pick out Silver stories instead, while the man wrapped, making her reading a problem. It was something to do while he worked that didn’t make her heart hurt.

Money passed hands, she had to get on tip toe to get to reach far enough not to put it in any goop, and he took it after peeling off a glove, counting it twice, while she adjusted to the weighty package.

“You played me fair, now get out.”

“Yeah,” well she’d played him, and he’d played back, so fun for them both, right? “Thanks.”

“Grazie.” The man behind the counter grumbled. “Don’t go spoiling this by being a dumb ass tourist about how you say something, Little Miss. Thanks is Grazie.”

“Graze-ie” Green parroted flashing him a grin when he smirked, telling her she’d either gotten it right or said it so wrong it was a profanity. Win either way. Heading to the door, about half way there, Green stopped.

“Hey, what’s bye?”

“For someone your age, a “bye” like this, it’s chiao.”

“Its chiao. Got it.”

And the guy barks out a laugh… “No, kid it’s literally…”

But he’s talking to the door and bell as it sings out, swinging shut behind the departing little girl with a clatter.

XXX

Blasty took his breakfast on the park, a purloined and cleaned off plastic plate to hold his meal of the day in a nest of paper, sprinklers going full blast because he needed the extra water and kicking the park sprinklers always set them off. While weird Blasty took his breakfast in the shower well. Wolfing down the slivers, slurping them like noodles. It wasn’t a swim and hunt but it’d do. He looked better, his scales gaining a bit of luster for the hydration. Though, since things seemed calm for whatever reason Green decided, watching Blasty go wild in a muddy patch of ground, that she’d take him and ‘Sea for a swim tonight. Even risk camping on the beach so they could get a good soak and hunt in.

But that was for tonight, until then there was some sprinklers going off without anyone running through them, and Green really should do something about that.

So she did.

XXX

She had to move twice. Sevii’s beaches were surprisingly exciting at night.

The first time was because of a truck. Not that monster of a truck that mowed down sand dunes around the Rocket Box Spot, or so Green’d started calling her soon-to-be-extraction spot. No it looked like a moving truck with it’s company writing scraped off. It stopped near her sandbank camp site, the back popped open while she was swiping sleep from her eyes, and she was half a mind to climb that sand bank and tell Archer off for waking her up, or whatever Rocket was there.

She was not expecting a bunch of men dressed like overcooked hotdogs to tumble out. Their features lost in high neck shirts and blocky red and orange visors, their garments were near skin tight, and she watched as they puled out barrels with weird symbols on them with a mean sort of anticipation. Nothing ripped, or tore, which was a shame. Still, like any self-respecting teenager, Green had her phone out and on record and caught her own grumbling about no “tears” in the soon to be anti-dexters video share group. Watching the mystery ‘dogs load, then wheel off, and dump… something… Whatever it was stunk, she could smell it from here, and she left her phone on the bank, letting it record without her as she packed up her stuff and slung everything in place. Summoning Blasty so they could make a quick getaway, she went back for her phone, and picking it up, she accidentally took a picture and the flash went off.

That’s what got her almost caught.

And chased.

By hotdog men.

The second time she nearly plowed into a search and rescue group looking for her.. Which, she really really had to just not laugh, because they were using her pre-kidnap picture and kept mispronouncing her last name. Still, she’d been seen, so she joined them on the edges with a shy wave, announcing she was Argent, when one of the youngest asked her name. She hung out among the scattering of trainers, teens, and officers, lurking among the youngest of the volunteers. She nodded and looked solemn and serious, biting on her cheek so not to giggle, while they went on about the dangers of someone being so young, so lost at sea… And speech done the police officer passed out flares for them to line the beach with so that they could “help” by making sure the rescuers could find the shore… Well Green did scatter her share, and then just kept on going.

But that marked off that patch of beach for.. well anything really.. and she hiked a lot longer than she’d wanted too. Crossing over a thin line of a wire, and a rocky outcrop that marked this patch of beach as someone’s private property.

There was a sign, all visitors will be psychically scanned, and Green just ignored it.

It was like one of those “electric signs” that just weren’t electric. After all who’d be rich enough to afford a psychic ‘mon security service? You’d have to own… most of Sevii, be Giovanni rich to do something like that.

Her head did tingle when she pulled the string up and slipped under it, but it was likely some pseudo mind read thing, and it was gone one step later, so nothing was wrong. Confident of that, Green poked around and found a perfect spot, with raised rocks and no hint of a path. The ground was sandy more than rocky and… and a squint at the sky confirmed that she had at least nine hours before the tide became a problem.

So, until then, Green, drew Blasty and Horsea with a grin.

“Last one in is a rotten eggsecute!”

They cheered and raced for the waves, Blasty a thunderous, ponderous, runner, Horsea coiling into a spring and “spoink”ing towards the waves… And Green was content to be left behind to make camp for a second time.

When the waves woke her, ten hours later, after sleeping in waaaay too long, Green decided no more beaches for a week. She’d steal coins and hose her team down at a car wash or something.

She crawled from her ruined camp, just glad that she’d set her stuff on top of the rocks via Jiggly before going to bed. Dragging her water logged blanket behind her, sputter and flailing after one spectacular wave tried to drag her out to sea, she shambled further towards the shore, spitting profanities she’d heard Red, and Rockets, and Karen used. Her ranting didn’t make sense, but she felt a bit better for yelling about something.

It figured that the fat-cat who owned the beach was out on her morning run jsit then. Green’s luck was just that bad. The woman had pretty red ahir, almost Silver pretty, and a jog suit that looked like it cost more than Green’d ever earned, stolen, and conned in her life. The number gizmo caught Green’s eye, she could snatch and grab and run… but a longer look confirmed it was melded into the suit, and thus wasn’t something Green could swipe.

Really, it just figured.

“Sweetie… what in Kygore’s name are you doing out here it’s…” And Blasty hunkers out of his shell, the waves waking him up, and he’s shuffling after Green. The woman’s eyes go wide, then thin, as she assumes “trainer” and probably “lost little kid” while she was at it. “The pokecenter’s-“

“On the other side of the island.” Green finished, confirming she hadn’t washed ashore late last night or something. “I know.” And she’s twisting her hair out, trying to ignore the grit of salt to… everything.

Above the sky rumbled, a few drops sputtered down, and Green flicked a glare at Blasty. A bit suspicious as the sudden drizzle and darkening sky. But the turtle only yawned, looking down at her saturated form with obvious amusement form the tip of his scales around his eyes. So the rain wasn’t due to him, nice to know. She orders the turtle to take his smugness to the rocks and get her stuff, all while the pretty lady watches on, a few moments and its’ more than spitting, it’s a steady drip that’s going to turn into a downpour, Green’s sure of it…

And she’s pretty sure the woman is too.

“Look…’ And the woman is considering Blasty with something like caution. That’s understandable, she doesn’t have a pokeball on her, Green gets it. Blasty’s big, still it’s a bit insulting how the woman relaxes when she scrolls her regard down to Green. Because Green’s not helpless, not one bit. “The pokecenter, h- heck,” and when wasn’t adult censoring lame, never, that’s when, “even getting to the edge of town’s a good half hour walk… But if you want, my homes about three minutes from here …”

Perhaps Green should feel bad, about her first thought is that this woman’s too trusting and that this could be one heck of an opportunity. But before guilt or anything more than acknowledgement can kick up in Green’s head, above her head the sky rumbles. Blasty rumbles encouragement at the sky, wags his tail in anticipation. That’s an old warning for Green, because the turtle loves it when it storms, and in about ten minutes he’s going to be having the time of his life. And while Blasty might like it, Green’d rather not court a cold, or worse.

“It it’s OK?” Green folded, wondering why Ms. Pretty Red-Head looked familiar. “Until this blows over.”

“Alright…” And she’s turning about, a glance to confirm Green and her bag toting turtle were following. “You know, I never did introduce myself, I’m Silvia.”

“Huh,” A pretty name to go with a pretty face and Green’s hands itch, wondering what she might have in her property she might not miss. “Nice to meet you, I’m Green.”

And it’s a bit… odd… the woman’s double take, but she’s at least adult enough not to make one of the many many color themed jokes Green’s heard her whole life. Which is a bit of a relief really and makes Green decide not to take too much.

Just enough to get sell off to get a treat, maybe a raincoat, a good set of boots, and nothing else…

But only if they got to her place before the storm really hit, if it took longer than three minutes everything’s fair game.

 

[K_S]

The nice thing about avoiding storms is they left little opportunity for chit-chat. Thus Green didn’t have time to berate herself for saying her first name or have to stammer out a fake last name, or anything equally exciting. It was just running, (well trotting for Blasty but the turtle was just dragging his shell because he wanted to get wet, the weirdo), not quite side by side, the pretty lady leading for obvious reasons. Green staggered a bit as her backpack threw her, but they made it before the water really came down. Tracking muck and sand and water over a pristine porch, but oh well. Shivering under the sanctuary of a wide, white, porch with an overhanging roof that looked something out of tales about westerns and Orre, the look was pretty and transplanted. Wringing her hair out, Green let her gaze comb over the porch. Potted plants, most which Green didn’t recognize, and a wind-chime clanging like mad that was more abstract art than anything recognizable. There was no rocking bench, like in the movies, no chairs, the overall effect was a bit… bare. But maybe this was a place to stand and look at the surf before going off to do other things. There was a carport off to the side, locked and sealed, but Green wasn’t quite so bold as to be eyeing.


Really it wasn’t like she could drive, or even reach the peddles.


Swinging her packs a bit more comfortably, over her back, Green shook her head, stomped her feet, dealt with the little things while she planned.


This lady was fat-cat Viridian rich, she’d likely not miss too much and there were a few spots in Greens’ packs she could fluff up, having burned through a few days of food. She had a few ideas where there might be a few Rocket-owned pawn shops… but why guess? She could just call Giovanni after she left the pretty lady’s home and offer him the goods. Novelty alone might get her a straightforward answer.


Thunder crackled above, and Green hopped, just a tiny bit, mind. Besides her, the pretty redhead gave her an understanding smile, scraped a hand over her head in a way that was far too familiar, and dug out a key card from a pocket so close to her skin it looked near skin tight. A flick over a slit in the front door and some mechanism inside clicked. The knob rattled, and the woman reached out, turning it and the door worked, normal-like.


Why… it seemed so extra… but considering a card would be harder to pick… and forget pickpocketing it out of that skin-tight running onesie she was wearing, Green sort of got the idea. But still, how could you get in if there was a power outage or something?


“Go on, I’ve company but he doesn’t bite, I’ll be in a bit after I feet Atticus.”


“Who’s?“ Claws clicked, shuffling sideways from a dune besides the carport came a Krabby, thus the Atticus mystery was resolved. “Alright, if that’s alright… Um just have Blasty leave my packs by the door and he can just take a shower in the storm. He knows to knock if he wants to come in.”


And he’d hydro pump the door down if he hears Green scream, not that the lady needed to know that.


Pulling off a few berries off of one of the unknown trees in a pot, the woman’s clucking at the Krab whose taking the stairs with a peculiar hopping sideways scuttle, and Green smirks a bit at the sight before poking her head into the door.


“I’ll just put my stuff by the door if that’s ok?”


No response, but then the Krabby’s doing a really good job of clicking and dancing, wanting his food right now, the ladies got her hands full. So Green shrugs off her things and scoots them off to the side. The floors are bare wood, and habit has her kick off her shoes, flip open her stuff so it’s “accidentally open” and thus easy to drop things into later. Manners appeased, and with a loose plan in place she straightened, scanning the room. It’s big and branched off in two directions as well as goes forward into a hall. The main color of choice is white, and cream, supposedly soothing, and makes Green think of milkshakes and marshmallows. Closest to her is a couch and a TV “floating” against the wall, it’s one of those paper-thin ones that boast three-d effects she supposes. There’s not a remote to be seen, but then rich people have voice-activated stuff, and since it’s bolted to the wall it’s a firm no-go for her packs. Twin bookshelves holding knickknacks rather than books bracketing each side of the screen most looked like awards, photos, and personal mementos rather than small anonymous things that would be easier to sell off… and to that Green huffs in disappointment.


Seriously, there was nothing in this room unless Green wanted to find a tool kit, work down the TV and…


And her train of thought is interrupted by a blur of white on the edge of her vision one thump and frictionless skid across the warm wood floor and Green finds herself pinned under a huge rag’ breed Persian. Her face is bracketed by widespread paws, claws clicking millimeters from her throat and face, and the cat’s stupid heavy hind paw has one leg pinned and another on her stomach. It’s only a mercy that it’s putting most of its weight on the forepaws, scarring the wood by her face, rather than breaking her ribs.


Despite the… consideration… Green’s left winded, near smothering under the thick longish hairs as the thing looms over her. The thing's almost as long-haired as a pyroar, and at her pathetic moan it looks down at her. The cat’s whiskers twitched up, making the baring of fangs a bit of a smirk, a familiar smirk. And it pisses Green off even if she can’t quite place where she’s seen that sort of look before.


An attempt to call for help ends with a paw raising up, settling over her about the mouth, it’s there then gone. The smothering is only a second long, barely any pressure, but Green’s gasping at the end of it. But Green gets it. No yelling.


And isn’t it scary that this thing’s that smart, that experienced….


Well, Green’s no pushover and doesn’t need help. She’s about to draw her knife, risk a stab into the thing’s ribs to get it off and get Nido out when the cat looks up. And it’s purring gets a bit louder, almost in greeting, then it’s looking down at her, red eyes squinted up in amusement, one paw scratching an inroad to her face, but not quite touching. The claws cradling her cheek, near prickling close.


“Hi kitty, nice kitty, purr purr purr…”


She’s babbling, hoping the cat won’t notice that Green’s pulling her arm to the side to better twist out her knife…


Footfalls, bare, no shoes. No open door either, so clearly the pretty ladies “company” wasn’t this four-legged killer. Which meant this wasn’t a guard ‘mon, or rather her guard ‘mon. Oh joy, a variable Green couldn’t see. Literally, couldn’t see. Her world was those red eyes, and a sea of fur, claws cradling her cutting close, and a voice.


“What the Hell are you doing here?”


A damned familiar, voice.


“You’ve got to be kidding-“


And the cat’s hissing in her face, and Green shrinks back into herself, it’s more a squirm, and she swallows resentment, mollifying her tone.


“I mean, Hi Mr. Sakaki.”


With a chuff the cat relaxes, understanding the tone if not the words and eases out of its hostility. Then the black-tipped ear twitches up from their previous plastered to the head pose as a calloused hand twiddles said ear. The feline is leaning into the man besides it, rumbling up a storm. Besides the cat, looking down at the cat's catch, cup of steaming something in hand, Giovanni looks... bored.


Like there were kids pinned under his killer cat every morning when he was out visiting friends… or whatever adults did at sleepovers.


Because those were slightly askew, partially open, dark green silk PJ’s. Green would bet her whole food ration on it.


He waited, slowing his petting of the cat as he stared down at her with a peculiar, detached, expression that made Green's skin crawl. SHe wondered if this was hwo Rockets were stared at when they failed and were going to be offed.


“I’m not dealing with this until I’ve finished my cup.”


Then,on near-silent footsteps, he padded out of the limited range of her sight. Alone, sorta, Green groaned.


“You’re just going to leave it-“


“Her, and yes.”


It figured, really, just why? Why her? Why today? She should have just camped at a car wash or something. Listening to the rain outside really pick up, Green slumped against the wood at her back, twitching a foot as she slumped into her sprawl.


She hoped Blasty was having fun if nothing else.


She could hear some noise from the porch, and further away Giovanni was walking about. Fussing with a sink. Just leaving her like this. Well, the noise from outside getting closer was a promise that her solitude was going to end in a bit… And perhaps there was a way to make this work for her. She’d have to give up the last of her dignity, but when did that stop her?


When the door clicked open Green was on her second rendition of “Nice soft kitty” and Giovanni’s Persian, funnily enough, had started purring in time with the song’s prompts to purr and looked a bit non-pulsed when Green was caught off guard by the redhead's return didn’t do the prompt to purr.


Suffice to say the redhead's expression, to Green pinned under an oversize feline singing “soft kitty” must have been something, the strangling noises were, if nothing else, interesting.

 

[K_S]

Need to run through Grammerly.

Green really hated it when adults dug into her phone.

After a quick review of Silver’s most recent send along, something that’d made Silvia laugh and soured Giovanni’s mood further. He’d gotten into her most recent footage and watched it, stony face, jaw muscle jumping, as he fought against some impulse or other that he obviously didn’t want to be public.

Well, that was his problem, he shouldn’t have taken her phone in a public place then.

Hovering over his shoulder, and probably reminding him why he couldn’t lose his cool just be being there, the pretty redhead watched as well. Face turning from amused to worried.

“Those definitely are new and not native to my Region.”

“The Liepard lines are a Kalos vanity,” Giovanni noted, dark eyes thinned, tone near monotone, “as are the corgunk and scrafty. They’re exotic, and transplants being used to transport… and dump.. .whatever that was.”

“I recognize the uniform, and while I could level some ugly claims at the Kalos embassy… I’m going to need more proof than one little girl’s video recording.”

Sitting across from the adults, Green sulked, stirring her oatmeal. Her breakfast, courtesy of the more considerate adult, was loaded with enough sugar to be deadly. With honey on top because Green was owed an apology and she’d take extra sweet as a starting point. She’d also sorta remembered that honey helped with aches (but was starting to think it might have something to do with aching throats, not bruises, because the extra sweetness wasn’t helping at all) gnawing on the coagulation of grain, heat, and sweet, while her privacy was invaded by adults.

Yet again.

“Someone’s looking to shake things up in Sevvi, gut your economy at the least. Why else drive something toxic across town and toss it into the ocean, there specifically?”

Face stilling into a no-tell stillness Silvia made a noise in her throat.

“I want to cross check that theory, and I’ve got a whole slew of ocean scientists who can figure the tides and what not.” And the woman, who was clearly more than just “pretty” gave Green the Look.

Oak had one like it.

The Look was a damnable mix of arcanine eyes and adult and it made Green’s skin crawl like Giovanni’s peculiar no-tell expression when she saw It. The last time It was tipped at her she found herself doing something stupid, dangerous, for the “right reasons” and look how far that’d gotten her. To a broken home and being on the run again, so no, Green wasn’t going to fold to The Look, thank you very much. Not today, not tomorrow…

“Sweetheart, are you ok?”

Green’d been pointedly looking outside, not looking at either adult, she jolted at the warm hand that closed over hers, not quite gripping. Green could twist her hand free, push back, get her stuff, and bolt.

She should, that’d be the smart thing to do.

But no, she had to look up, meet Silvia’s, because of manners and… ung she was taking the Look head on now.

Why why why…

In the back of her head, Green could hear Silver, his voice wry mimic of some league announcer as he listened to her bemoan The Look and how Oak’d used it against her.

“It’s supereffective.”

She’d told him to shut up, then, and right now it was on the tip of her tongue to just blurt that out right now, get her things, and run. Hypothermia, pneomiea, all that was nothing compared to the sheer insanity The Look had gotten her into before.

She’d gone to Silph for it. Red’s puppy eyes drawing her grudging cooperation…

Silver’d tried it then too, to talk her into a break in. A really stupid one. And she’d fallen for it, hook line and sinker. Green cringed into herself, wincing back form the touch because Arceus, she could feel herself getting sucked in. Nothing was even being asked yet and Green was utterly helpless for any case of puppy eyes. No matter Mask’s training, or her life, she really did have quad vulnerability to puppy eyes…

And wasn’t that a revelation.

“No.” Because she might as well try to get out of this, even if it was futile.

“Certainly,” and damned the man for sounding so compassionate, his eyes were hard though, Green could see that at least even if she couldn’t hear through his lies. “You can at the very least tell us where you were camped last night.”

“No I’m really not.” Green dug in, lips pressing into a thin line. “And I can’t. You can use my phone, track its location,” she’d never turned it off since no one knew she’d had it, it’d seemed a bit paranoid to bother. And funnily how she’s lost sleep over worrying about it, even as it was helping her now. “You can have my phone, if you get me a new one and pay a year on it. No turning it off later, no using it to bug me or look me up either, you do that, and it’s yours. But you leave me alone after.”

Ms. Silvia had let her hand go, though that troubling look of concern had deepened, even as Giovani, leaning on the table besides the woman, twiddled with Green’s phone. The man was clearly toying with the idea of not giving it back. Well Green wasn’t going to let him have it. Green tapped the table and held out her hand, request obvious, and in front of witnesses, well she wasn’t sure what he would do.

“It’s mine.” Green snapped.

“The preferred make and model for the replacement?” The Rocket was so still, an in that moment he was suspended over so many possibilities and telling none of what he’d do with his tone or features.

Was he amused at her vehemence, irritated at her refusal, something else?

Green couldn’t tell.

She checked a shiver and snapped the phone back. Quick and hard enough you’d think he’d count to make his fingers at the motions end, but he just leaned back, waiting.

“I… I need a computer to look this sort of thing up… I only used my folk’s to do school work.”

“Speaking about your folks…” The pretty lady pipped up.

And before Green could begin to spin a lie, an evasion part truth part falsehood-

(She was a trainer, swinging by. See her water team? They loved going to the ocean and Sevii looked so promising… and so on and so forth.)

Giovanni shook his head.

“Inaccessible I’m afraid.”

“You have more than one kid?” The woman canted a bitter look up, Green forgotten in that moment. Clearly irritated and alluding to some other conversation that Green knew nothing about.

“Silver’s called her his sister, in my hearing even, but the situation is a bit... more complicated than misplaced adventures in my adolescence... Perhaps, before you do your research, Green, I should tender all the appropriate introductions?” As if her opinion mattered. Still Giovanni was waiting, so Green nodded, and the man continued. "Miss Mayor and head of the Sevii Region, may I introduce you to Green Azule, ex-Mask of Ice Disciple, and keystone to Viridian Corp’s lawsuit into the Mask of Ice Johto/Kanto League scandal.”

Silvia made the Persian pinning Green down noise again, and the expression accompanying it was interesting. A mix of choking and constipation, utter indignation and horror, with a flush on top of it to round it all out.

“She’s just a kid!”

Huh, no wonder the woman had looked familiar.

“All the abductees that Mask took were horridly young. As you know… my son was less than five years old when he was taken…”

Silence, as Green contemplated the view out, it was raining meowths and growlithe, so out wasn’t much of an option. The Mayor of Sevii pulled herself together, while besides her Giovanni tapped one finger against the table. Calws clicked, heralding the feline’s return.

Alright so running was really out.

Green sighed, wishing she’s picked a different beach right now.

“You have a computer?” Pushing aside her meal, Green stood, and to that Silvia nodded.

“Most adults do. I’ll show you how to get set up.” The politician promised, and unlike most adults, the woman was true to her word.

XXX

Returning, the Rocket was the unpleasant scent of wet bird and the sound of waterlogged boots. And those sensations were a bit ominous when coming out of sleep. Only the softness around her and the warmth of the Persian draped over her kept Green from panicking. To better shake off the memory of old abductions Green struggled to sit up, and look around. It’d put a wall between then and now.

Having gotten up to flying into the teeth of a storm so to get Green’s demands “over with” Giovanni looked a mess. Some thumps, affirmed he’d made some sort of stop over by the door. Green could see more packs by the door and a shiny steel suit case that definitely wasn’t hers. Turning on his heel, to go deeper into the house, Giovanni stomped past her and the drowsy mayor. Looking distinctly wind burned, hair a mop on his head, skin pale from the chill, a ”sick Silver” sort of pale. He’d, by the sound of it, tossed a plastic box down and stomped off towards some unknown destination. Unknown, until Mayor Silvia looked up from her tablet and sprawl on a nearby chair and hollered at Giovanni that the bathroom was the third door, not the fourth.

A few heavy steps were the wordless response to those instructions...

Then the sound of running water, as perversely, the Rocket was going to take a hot shower after getting out of the rain.

Hadn’t he heard of drying off with warm towels and settling in front of a fire Green snorted, and then pushed off the Persian draped over her legs. Or rather, she nudged the cat, who opened a red eye, and with a murp, rolled over, letting Green get off. With a bit of squirming, mind.

“She’s friendy” her ass. Green knew when she was being herded about and controlled, even if that controller was soft and fluffy. Still, she was up and minding the water trail so she wouldn’t slip, Green nipped into the kitchen.

Wrapped in the ruins of a waterlogged bag, logo a mystery, was the phone Green’d ordered. The fluffruit 2000 x lite, a steely color closest to silver she’d found in the log. Near lost in the folds of a tearing bag were twelve cards. Premium plan chips, one for each month, labeled and stacked, they had unlimited everything, and sloshed clean from the down pour. The only packaging that’d made it was stuff protected by plastic covers…

That and a contract, wrapped in a ziplock bag.

She could make out a sharp signature that aas probably Giovanni’s on the bottom, but the rest of the writing was small print mumbo jumbo and so folded over Green’d have to dig it out to start reading. So Green didn’t bother.

Just stared at the things he had hared off into a storm to fetch. A bit numb, because it’d been a long long time since she’d gotten anything from someone.

Even if this was a classic case of “something for something”.

Looking back Green realized that They had given her things, things they thought she wanted, Mask had given her just enough not to die and taken everything else in the bargain… And Silver gave and gave, not expecting anything, not even thanks. And she hadn’t thanked him, not when he’d nearly gotten caught, breaking into places and fetching her soft warm things almost frantically those first few weeks.

Suffice to say, gifts were weird.

Footsteps from behind made Green look up, blink sharply at the stinging behind her eyes, as she saw the Mayor coming over, grumbling about men and their thoughtlessness at the water trail, then looking at her and smiling a small smile.

“Hey, he got you the right thing, right?”

Green nodded, not quite trusting herself to speak.

“Need help getting it open?”

A thump and click of claws affirmed that Persian was going to be wanting snuggles and herding her around into a spot so she could nap again, to that inevitability Green sighed. Time was limited, might as well make what she could of it.

“You got scissors?”

“Of course.”

One small perusal into a drawer by the sink, a rather mundane affair of odd and end hardware things that made sense, even if the duct tape in there didn’t, Silvia had a small pair of scissors on hand and movwd to passed them along. A merow, utterly insulted, sounded, and both woman and girl looked to the cat, who had reared and flexed a paw, pointedly.

“Offering to do the honors Persian?” Sevii’s mayor hummed. “Are you his personal paper assistant than?”

Whiskers twitched, near warping the cat’s snout into a smile, tail lifting, more to tone than words, the cat yowled, a friendly seeming, “Per!” as she batted at the box. Almost pointing at it.

“Pushy aren’t you.” Mayor Silvia chuckled, putting the scissors in her pocket. “How about I let you have go and if you can’t safely open it I’ll use these, fair?”

The cat’s responding meow was part ascent, utter sass, and a perfect fit for a Rocket’s pet, really, she was.

The phone was deboxed, the box in pieces and batted about, and the device was activated and charging by the socket closest to the front door when Giovanni stepped out of the shower. Sevii’s mayor was off to make calls deeper in the house, private adult only calls she hadn’t wanted Green to evesdrop on, and curiously she’d said as such, to Green directly.

“They aren’t about you, they’re work related. Mainly about the video, I need to let people know, and later mail those files out, if you’ll allow me to.”

Since Giovanni had held his word Green’d hold to hers. She’d made some noise that’d been taken as agreement, and more tired that anything else Green’d taken her sprawl back on the couch. The free entertainment of watching Persian play had been enough to keep her there, and the weather outside enough to keep her from planning on going out. It’d graduated from moewth and growl’s to arcanine and Persians, the only mercy was that there was no thunder, no power surges.

Being trapped with Rocket in the dark was not Green’s idea of a good time, even if they were sorta working together.

Content to let the good mayor think Green trusted her Green waved her off. Wished her a good day at work, even though it wasn’t quite a right fit, and with a smirk the woman had left. With her team on her belt, trust wasn’t an issue, Green had rain and type advantage if Giovanni descided to do anything stupid...

And seriously, considering Persian’s track record of getting her paw caught in the box, and wandering to Green with a soft mewl to “fix it”, and that it’d been the sixth time thus far…

Yeah, Giovanni had a team of five ‘mon that could fight, this cat, surprise pouncing non-withstanding, wasn’t going to be a problem in a real fight if a box kept beating her.

The water from the shower cut off, and stepping out into the hall, a purloined hotels towel scraping up loose water and hairs, the Rocket stepped onto the scene of Green “saving” his cat for the seventh time. Old phone in her lap, and talking to Silver on speaker, an extra pillow shivered, showing it to be Jiggly, who wanted attention, which Green lavished while teasing Silver about something. In short, Green was a picture perfect image of teenager multitasking with a bit of a ‘mon twist.

Silver, unwilling to take the ribbing while being down, bit back with a bit of snark of his own. “How do you keep getting into things? I thought being normal meant you didn’t get involved in this stuff. So why do you keep getting up to your ears in crazy, huh?”

“How was it my fault the hot dog men decided to descend on the beach? And it’s not my fault that they’re crazy. I’m just trying to get out of this before it gets worse. I keep telling myself, just a few more days but… I’m gunna ask to get out of here tonight.”

“Seriously, do it. Say I’ll come if he doesn’t.”

There were footsteps behind him, almost besides him. Without even turning to look Giovanni cut his arm across the hall, stopping Silvia from stepping through, a glare over his shoulder stilled her greeting, and both adults lingered in the hall. Listening.

“I don’t think blackmailing the Boss of Viridian Co.’s smart Silver.”

“He says he’s my Dad.”

“And Mask said he was bad, and Red said he was bad, and Blue, and Yellow, and Oak, and that police guy, Lookie-”

“And they’re all liars. Right? They all stabbed us in the back when we didn’t do what they wanted. And you said Mask’s full of tauros shit, he’s always been. Good people don’t kidnap kids, right? They don’t ask them to do dangerous things? We don’t have to do dangerous things anymore, right? That’s what getting out meant. No masks, no danger.”

“Yeah,” Nipping her lip Green went back to grooming Jiggly with her hair brush. “You really think it’s a Team thing, but not a Rocket thing?”

“Yeah, Yellow looked them online at school and then got in trouble for looking them online at school. Guess they’re another “adult only” thing. Yellow called it classified, or said the adults called it that, but I don’t think she knows what that means.”

Yeah, Green figured. Classified meant get caught reading or talking about it and Mask locked you with Brown until you froze to death. So Yellow really didn’t know what that word meant. Neither really wanted to explain that to her though.

“You know…” And by that hum Green knows Silver’s putting something together, something Green wouldn’t like. “You always blamed me for our crazy stuff. And you can’t do that right now because I’m not there…”

“I could roundabout blame you, he is your Dad.”

“Says he is.”

“He got set on fire for you Silver, dragged you out of a fire that that crazy Rocket set up. He punched Mask for you, and Sird, and Proton, and probably Red. With lawyers, he punched Red and Blue with lawyers... I’m pretty sure it’s more than “thinks he is”. Anyways…”

Giovanni tapped on the door frame, cutting off... whatever Green was going to say. What was she going to say? Green wasn’t sure, all thoughts died in her head. With a curse Green jolted, Jiggly whining under her because that’d been a tangle she tugged.

“Umm he’s here.” A long moment, than Green swore again. “They’re both here… him and the mayor…”

“You really think she’s my Mom, or going to be my new Mom? I mean, that’s what adults do at sleep over’s, right?’

Oh Arceus, Silver, why did you have to say that, right now?

Moaning, Green slumped near double. Hiding her face in her hands. Silence... save it wasn’t. Silver nattered on about “why were mayors so important anyway?” and realizing he wasn’t going to shut up Green straightened, daring a peek at the adults.

The mayor looks like she was about ready to die. Giovanni went a weird shade of red, and then cleared his throat.

“No, she’s not and is not going to be.” The Rocket cut in. And, oh thank Mew for someone with a brain who could think through sheer embarrassment. Green almost liked the man just then.

“Was that-?” Realization hit and Silver squawked. “Why am I on speaker Green?!” The boy’s voice was cracking in his panic. “Oh my Mew, how do I hang up, how do I…” Beeping, as he tried a few buttons the volume went down a bit, a small mercy since he was in the yelling stage of his panic. “YELLOW, HELP ME HANG UP!”

Green whined in her throat. “I’m sorry, he’s normally like this.”

“You’re not funny.”

“Yes I am…” Because there were two roads, making things better, and making them worse. And they didn’t get away from Mask and Rocket and crazy League peoples by being good. “No, bad cat… How did you get his Persian to want to eat phones? How did Sneasel teach her to all the way from where you’re at?”

“That’s not my faul- Yellow, thank Mew… How do you-?“

Silvia snorted, seeming to shake off her mortification as Silver sunk further into his, by the panicked sounds from the phone.

The bweep of dial tone confirmed someone had hung up at last, Yellow or Silver, Green didn’t care. And really, she probably should have herself. Oh well.

“So, hi?”

“In ten minutes,” Giovanni ordered, looking odd. He wasn’t in his rocket uniform, but rather a button down shirt rather fussily done up and slacks. Both black, with a flick of green around the cuffs and neck to keep the whole thing from being monotonous, or funeral wear worthy. They were patterend after leaves, leaves attached to smoke grey branches, that glinted. Some sort of cuff link around them caught Green’s eye. “You are calling him back and telling him not to come, when your transport falls through for tonight.”

“He’s going to know you said to say that. He’s not stupid.” And Green wasn’t stupid, or going to offer anything like a promise for that.

“Then you are going to call, and I’m going to explain to him why he’s not to come here.”

“Because things are “picking up” because of these “hot dog men”? He’s not going to-”

“The “hot dog men” are Team Flare, and unlike Rocket they regularly target families. They went after honest ittaliano businessmen, kidnapped their kids, and skinned them alive on television to make a point. I had to pull Viridian corp out of Kalos after that debacle because the police were paid off enough to pretend to not know what was going on, as were the League. If Silver’s here, alone, and Flare even suspects, they will do anything to get him. Because if they do that they get Kanto in their pocket in one stroke.”

Silence, than in a tone of sheer disgust, the good mayor spoke up. “Gio, you don’t talk to kids about stuff like that it’s not-“

“Will he listen if you tell him that?”

Green chewed her lip, running a hand over Jiggly while she thought.

“Mask did worse, threatened and did.” Brown for an example. The things Will did to them for others. “If I tell Silver that he’s just going to get mad and try to stop them himself.”

“Which is unacceptable.”

Green nodded, agreeing with the man for once.

“Why can’t you get me out of here, tonight?”

“Because if Flare’s dumping crap into the ocean, they’re doing more. Watching the ships, the shipments, what not. Any commercial source is suspect. And considering the weather I’d not recommend surfing. Even if the weather were fine you could be abducted off your ‘mon as easily as off a ship.” Flicking a glare, to Silvia, then Green, he concluded. “They’re trying to get a foot hold in Sevii. Your bonds to Silver aren’t exactly a secret as despite his many lies, Blue Oak did not lie about that when he testified, that Persian’s more than out of the bag.”

“Blue Oak talked about Silver and Me?”

“Looker used that as justification to look you up. He intercepted you on your way to Sevii, on the road.” Actually, on the beach before they started surfing to Sevii. He’d tolerated the ice beam Silver had Snea’ chuck at him well enough. Really been focusing on Green, now that Green thought back on it. And while the promise of a new adventure had had some allure, home had been right there… So Green had said no, and when the man had pushed, gotten rude. Said a few disgusting things even. Silver had had Snea’ toss a hail behind them before Green had summoned Blasty to get them going.

And the agent hadn’t pursued. Or approached either one of them after. Perhaps thinking they both were incurable familiia members, whatever that meant... It’d been one of the man’s insults, anyways.

And how Giovanni had known about that, Green had no clue. She hadn’t been talking to Yellow then, still that wasn’t important. If Giovanni knew, then other Bosses might too.

Which actually made his threat make sense, and made it closer, and scarier, all at once.

Checking a shiver, Green tipped her head at the man, just… thinking. Finally she wondered. “And how is it leaving…. When I’m supposed to leave, going to be safer?”

“You’ll be leaving with me. I’ll personally escort you to Viridian. As for what happens after, I doubt it will be Flare related. Flare has no hold in Kanto.”

Flare probably had graves in Kanto, definitely not holds if the Rocket’s tone meant anything…

And besides him, looking utterly lost, the poor mayor was certainly adrift. Finally, drawing a deep breath, the woman spoke up, shaking off her shock it seemed. Pushing into the room, she took her old chair and Giovanni followed after her, standing behind Green’s couch. She kicked at his hands, because tehywere there, missed on purpose, and he canted a mild look at her malice, something almost fond twisting his features before he went to the opposite side of the couch to loom there.

Cutting off her access to the door, but then Persian popped up on the other side of Green and lay down, really cutting off her access to out.

“And what do the young ladies parents have to say about this… her leaving, her being the target of an international gang abduction? Do they even know what’s happening?”

“Oh them?” Green snorted, affecting a brittle brightness. Trying to just avoid looking at the Rocket.

Because Giovanni’s giving her a look that reminded her of the table, it was patient and placid, signifying what’s said is in her hands.

“Don’t you know, Mask doesn’t exist Ms. Mayor? He’s just a figment of my imagination. I managed to swindle all those other kids and lock them up all with my figment of my imagination when I was five. I even conned poor Mr. Sakaki, and his lawyers, and the police and everything.”

And Sevii’s mayor, looked from Green, to Giovanni, horrified and sick.

“What- why…”

“They had custody of my son… while I was recovering from cancer treatment.” The Rocket tabbed on. “They kicked him out for his “delusions” about Mask, making him homeless after he resisted their gas lighting and had an episode, a flashback relating to his trauma, in public. Silver was… an undesirable in their eyes. When my son left they turned their attentions to Green, and Green… while reasonable in her caution when dealing with a nearly unknown man… reached out to me for assistance.”

The Rocket shrugged, a mute, “and here we are now,” if Green’d ever seen one.

“They sent cray-cray doctors after me.” Green concluded. “I said Mask was real, that I was sane, and am emancipated since... income, trainer, and have a record in the league and stuff…” Green ticked her points off on her fingers, twiddling them a little. “Anyways, I looked it up. Nothing’s expired yet. Anyways, they had guns with darts, I have a Blasty, and now they have a new back door and I’m sorta on the run again? Except there aren’t ice types trying to re-abduct me, and the police are a joke.”

While the poor mayor strangled Green rewound what she said in her head, and tabbed on. “I mean, sorry, but they are, still… sorry I guess?”

“It’s I…”

“Five minutes, then you call.” Giovanni ordered. Then tilting a look towards Silvia sighed. “Ms. Mayor, if I could coax you to come with me so we can talk about the specifics.”

“Why isn’t.. child services…”

“Ew.. no, I’m not Oliver Quick. You’re not putting me in an orphanage.” Green slumped on the pillows, scooping up Jiggly. “I spent enough time in a cell, years in a freezer, so, no. Not that again.”

“Twist. And no, we aren’t. No one’s calling protective or using freezers.”

Yeah, that’d be a mess, huh? Big bad crime Boss having to deal with judges and interviews and house inspections…. It wasn’t quite the temptation to blurt out as it’d been at their home, but Green snorted, unable to not laugh at the idea in her head.

“What were you, an English major?” Green sneered.

“International business major, minor in theater, actually.”

Green might of over tossed Jiggly at the shock of that one.

“You were a theater kid-“ Jiggly floated down on Green’s head, getting her flippers in Green’s hair and her bulk on Green’s shoulder. “You’re kidding.”

“I had to learn how to make my voice carry at meetings and how to get attention from a room full of people from somewhere. I also wasn’t above taking few “frivolous” courses to piss off my parent off…”

Green’s trying to imagine Silver taking anything to tick anyone off. He’s just too laid back for that… And imaging Giovanni as a knobby shorter version of himself, a black haired lankier Silver, is making her head hurt. Because how… what… Had he had to act in ”Oliver” like the singing version, is that how he knew it wasn’t Swift... or whatever it’d been?

“Three minutes.”

The threat’s almost friendly, which makes it a bit scarier than his idle malice from earlier.

“What?” Because Green’s still struggling, trying to get the Silver Giovanni theater class hobgoblin out of her head and not doing a good job of it.

“The call?”

Oh right the, do what I say or I’ll kill you for letting Silver get in danger, call. Right.

That.

“Also, I’d recommend coming across some income and submitting it through the league channels in the next week and a half, your League immunity is close to expiring.”

Then with a pat to Jiggly’s head, he’s walking around the couch and gone, taking the mayor with him. To threaten, or sweat talk her around to his side of things, Green’s not sure.

She’s not even sure she cares, really.

Flipping open her old phone, Green sets Jiggly off her head, on the couches back, and Persian pops up. Setting a paw on Green’s feet. No running, got it. Claws tap against her toes, a peculiar beat interspaced by purrs… And it takes one repetition before Green realizes what it is. She glares at the cat.

“Nu uh, you get that song for being a good cat. Threatening to squish me until I sing it is bad cat behavior…” Flipping open her phone, Green tried to ignore the not so subtle threat, even as the cat slinked closer, going from looming to draping. Taking inspiration from Green’s complaint the feline spread out to better squash the girl into the cushions, claws tapping, purrs in tune…

Just as the call goes through and Silver picks up.

“Green…” He’s on speaker and a bit tinny. “What… Why are you… Are you singing?”

It takes some squirming, and a kick, but Green’s no longer being smothered to death by death kitty.

“You’re Dad’s cat, sucks. And tell Yellow to look up Sakaki and theater, it’s the only blackmail were going to get for ages. He’s probably deleated all of it, but its’ got to be somewhere on the internet.”

After all everything was.

“You can do it yourself; I mean you’re going to be in Viridian in a day or two, right?”

“About that…”

Suffice to say Silver’s not happy. But he’s informed as to why she’s not coming, and less than thrilled because she tells him that Giovanni had wanted to not tell him everything, than Green turned around and told Silver everything any way.

“I really don’t think we want to get sucked into a.. Team whatever this is turning into.” Green huffed, smacking the cat who is purring into her ear in time to the song that Green’s not singing. “I mean, they skin people alive Sil’ that’s… I… I can’t even think about what they’d do to you if they did that to some rich guys kid that wasn’t a Rocket. I don’t want to ever think about it, about that maybe happening to you… I just…”

“I won’t come.” And it’s a promise, tight and unhappy, but Silver keeps his promises so some of the tension in Green’s chest eases. Because her brains thinking of skinned kid and thinking about Brown, and her head’s not a pretty place. His promise helps her push that back a bit. “Unless they get to you, they hurt you, then everything’s off. I’ll freeze every one of them if they touch you.”

“I’m not stupid Sil’, they won’t even know I’m here.” She’d roll, but couldn’t and Giovanni’s Persian is eyeing the phone and it’s shiny screen with curious red eyes. “Hey, do you have any spare money? I need to put something in my League Account so I don’t lose my license.”

“Why don’t you ask F- H- Giovanni?”

“So I can shake your Da’ down for money?”

“N- ye- I don’t know how to answer that…” A huff, and grumble as Silver, who could move, did, by the sound of the interference. “Look, I used almost all of mine on silly string and potions and glitter.”

He’d glitter bombed floors of the league, snow glitter bombed, and Green figured it had to come somewhere. But all his money, on prank materials?

“Sil’ what did I tell you about rationing?”

“This from Miss. I need money to keep my license.”

“Yeah, Mr. I glittered Sabrina’s office and made glitter snowmen in Kogas so much so I’m broke.”

“Hey, he can’t ninja now, he just sparkles, right?”

And there are footsteps coming from down the hall and Green’s laughing anyway.

“Yeah like a Galar ponyta. Bet he clip clops in those funny wood shoes of his and sparkles for days after he gets his paperwork” probably not, but Silver’s snorting on a laugh. “I’m not alone, so I gotta go. I’ll call you from my new number sometime tomorrow.”

“Talk to you then.”

The screen goes dark and there’s a flicker of red and the relief of all that weight going away as Persian’s recalled.

“You really didn’t have to hang up on my behalf.” The Rocket demurs, clicking the cat’s pokeball on his belt.

“Considering Silver doesn’t trust you...” Much less like, though green’s not mean enough to say that. “I kinda did. You asked me to lie to him, and I didn’t, and he knows that now. He also says that “you suck” because you freaking ordered me to lie to him and he didn’t like that. Oh and “Don’t do that again, or he’ll glitter your Viridian office”. And also, you owe me money. For courier services...”

The last had been Yellow’s suggestion, popping in and out, listening as she’d gotten ready for school. She’d chimed the suggestion out on her way out and it’d sounded good for the two ex-disciples that had no clue what a courier was. Giovanni settled on the edge of the couch, there’s enough room that Green doesn’t feel crowded, but still she scrunches up anyways and glowers at him, Blasty’s pokeball in her hand.

Because he’s not going for his wallet.

And Green really needs him to do that, that or she’s going to have to go out the second it stops raining and pick a fight with someone. There’s all of nine trainers of Sevii, not counting herself, and they smarted up ages ago and won’t battle her. If she punches one of them first they might. Maybe.

Hopefully.

“And you have the proper paperwork to prove your income? All the lines crossed, everything dotted? Because now that Oak’s dropped you as his protégé, you have to file it now, you’ve no dex to automatically record your battle history. So I’m assuming you’re prepared and just need me to pass up some money and sign?”

Paperwork? Green froze, because she hadn’t known. And he’s smiling, a smile like his Persian, all edges and taunting and smugness. And if he were a hair closer Green’d kick him, but he was set just so she couldn’t.

“And two witnesses, I’ll of course sign, since I’m seeing my money go to your person, but who else will you have…”

“You… I… paperwork?”

“Paperwork. You know, active poof of employment.”

And Greens’ recalling threats, and taunting and… and she really really doesn’t want to work with Sabrina. If he says she has too, she’s gone. “And you have something… planned?”

“Right up your alley, I’ll even have Sevii’s good mayor sign off on it, it’ll be unassailable. Unless you want to try to get a job, while you’re on the run? No worries, you have about a week to think it over…”

Mew, she’s about ready to scoot forward to kick him anyways. But she doesn’t. because he’s got her paperwork, she just has to deal with him for a minute, perhaps two more…

“What’s the job?”

“If I wanted to break into this…” And he’s turning a tablet over, the one tucked under his arm, so she can see the screen. It’s got a building and a logo that looks a little like the logos on the hotdog peoples’ shirts. “How would you suggest I do so?”

“A water processing plant?”

“Some competitors in the science community that the good mayor is looking into.”

Huh, weird but… alright.

“How much time do I have to plan this?”

“A week, give or take.”

So basically today. Since slowpoke mail was named slowpoke for a good reason.

“Well, I guess you can get the blue prints and stuff since she’s the mayor. I’d get those, and someone sneaky, and do a tour. Like a bigwig person tour that’ll pull the executives and stuff out of their offices. That gets all the smart people out of the way. Probably faster than a fire. And when I was doing that tour I’d send someone with you, through the roof or something with the ‘prints, to poke around while you distract the big wigs by asking a lot of questions and making scenes and stuff… We… did something like that at Silph, timing a break in when there was a tour by V-. “ By him, Green realizes with a wince. “Well, that’s not important. But it’s worked before. So that’s how I’d do it, if I was in a rush.”

Which Green is.

Black eyes consider her, weighing some factor against another.

“I told you how I’d do it; I did your job…”

“And I’ll give you five thousand for it, no strings attached, because you did. Though you should really consider clearing pay before offering your services. And while I could hire someone else to do the “sneaky” bit,” A Rocket, perhaps a team of them. “I’ve a further proposition… Something that if done just right, may very well speed both our departures off of Sevii. We could be in Viridian day after tomorrow if it plays right.”

And to that temptation, Green runs a tongue of her lips, itching to taste the salt-less air, see the thick shades of trees again, see Silver, just to be able to be. And be in peace. No police, no reminders of them. She might be able to make a home in Kanto, and if not Kanto some other region, but to do that she has to get out of here first.

“How’s it going to work?” Green questions, because she hadn’t before and gotten off lightly, he’s not likely to be that nice twice. “And how much are you paying me?”

“Quite a bit.” He hums, evading as casually as breathing.

“Yeah, how about a number? Related to my pay. And then a description of the job that’s honest? I might say yes after you and the mayor sign off on the first job I took.” Because she’s not letting him off on anything, she wasn’t that money, no strings attached to stay no strings attached.

Fool her once…

Well there’d be no twice, and with a laugh, Giovanni stood, going to the briefcase by the door. Her papers aren’t all the way on the top, but near enough to make her feel important, even if it’s kinda accidental ego stroking on his part. She’s not vital, thus not on the top, or expendable, and thus on the bottom. Right in the middle feels safest and middle toppish makes her feel a little special.

“For services rendered to Viridian Gym and Viridian Co?” She parrots off the paper, not understanding the legalese in the slightest but able to pick out whom she’s getting money from.

And wasn’t that a kick in the face? Because by taking employment form him, as a person and a business, her trainer ship –and freedom- depended on him keeping his station. Which meant that if he ticked her off Green couldn’t go to the police, with his Rocket card, or telling Looky, or anything to anyone. Ever. And he and his Persian, they’re a pair, he’s nearly purring as he watches her put it all together, dark eyes glinting with unspoken mirth.

Green couldn’t even warn Sevii’s mayor about anything. She’s going to have to stick up for the Rocket and provide cover stories if anything goes wrong in Sevii because signing this was linking him to her. Her freedom to his good name, at least until she was eighteen and legal an adult.

It also was taking her out of the goodie goodie squad… indefinitely... And Green’s focusing on that silver lining, and only that, as she scrawls her name in the marked spot. Trying not to feel bad for Mayor Silvia or anyone else ever that has to deal with Giovanni from here on out.

Because she might not be an adult, but she gets responsibility. And in doing this, protecting him even a little, she’s a tiny bit responsible for everything Giovanni does from here on out. Because she’s part of it. And that thought makes her stomach clench as he takes the papers from her, as he calls out to Silvia, “for her “help” for a moment”.

And the mayor comes in, warm from the glow of success, smirking, hanging up her phone as she comes in.

“Booked it. One surprise inspection, and proof from the permits office of lawful wrong doing. We’ve enough proof to put them on the ropes for building outside of zone and using wrong permits. They are’t celared for those tnaks of whatever, we don’t even need to open them up. Just see them. The clutch of Cloy’ heads at R and D are going to be forwarding their information on… Well where they think the stuff was dumped and…”

“Will this help?” Green offers her phone, location app and travel history on the front screen. A toss and the woman’s startled, but catches it easily enough.

“More than you can imagine, thank you very much Green.”

“Yeah.” Green waves off the woman’s thanks. And since Giovanni’s close enough, she nudges him extra hard with a foot because she can. “About that…”

“Of course, Gio walked me through how this works.. Can I borrow your?- Thank you, Gio.” And the mayor signs, never really getting what she’s signing up for, and Green tries not to get sick, but it’s hard. “I’m just glad I can help you out a bit, you’ve done so much…”

“Think nothing of it.”

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Hi there, reporting in for Catnip Circle.

So, my first impressions of this fic are a little strained by the fact that I'm not a manga reader. There are definitely some attempts to explain the context of the story to readers like myself, but I think those attempts were obfuscated by the way in which they were presented. The prose you're using tends to be quite elaborate, there's definitely a strong push towards a sophisticated lexical register, but it could really do with being more straightforward. I regularly had to reread sentences to figure out what was meant by them, either because of errors, or because they were excessively complicated when a simpler sentence would have sufficed. By 'errors', I mean such things as using 'coral' when you mean 'corral', or using 'adlibbed' to mean 'improvised' or 'jerry-rigged' when that term only refers to verbal improvisation – I noticed that you used Grammarly, which is definitely a useful step, but you might want to consider a combination of more careful proofreading, the use of a proficient beta reader, and becoming slightly less ambitious with the prose.

In terms of the story itself, I'm particularly unsure what tone you're going for. The serious, methodical way Giovanni plans his actions, the references to threats, trauma and the mafia, and how desperately unhappy Green is all indicate a serious tone. However, the opening scene of roombas with knives, and Giovanni feeling that he needs to show off a large bird to a child to not lose face seem much sillier. I'm not sure what to advise specifically, as you know your objectives better than I do, but if you weren't meaning for there to be a dissonance like this I hope it's clear where it's coming from.

In terms of my emotional reaction, Green certainly came across as an angry, scared teen, and Giovanni as a cold, cognisant planner. I usually think of Giovanni as ruthless – he goes out of his way to be reasonable and deferent in this, although it does have the tone of a 'very reasonable' villain who is in fact uncompromising underneath. I'm not rooting for any particular outcome, except perhaps for Giovanni to remain thousands of miles away from these children. Yikes!

I hope some of my commentary is useful, or at least interesting!

 

[K_S]

Its a more than fair reply thanks for taking a shake at the story though you're unfamilair with the genre...

I definitly appreciate the catches on my errors hopefully patching them up will help accessabilty a little. I'll probably apply the non grammer error fixer uppers to later tales though...

Actually you kinda caught the point. There are three tones/perspectuves/angles of this fic running side by side.

Basically the first chapter was meant to catch all three tenors and show them to the reader upfront so you basically have an idea of everything coming in.

The first is the pranking Silvers doing which is part stress releif for the kid part yelling for help and the main comic relief of what turned into a pretty dark fic fast.

The second is Greens situation and as shes in angry teen phase a bit early for very good reason that got a bit of highlight the "why" of that is non canonical and becomes the focus of the early to mid chapters.

Then in closing you have gio who is basically fronting as reasonable villian or the "known devil" as a review on ao3 put it. And trust me. He is ruthless and everything you mentioned he is just playing a long game and assuming specific roles to get his end goal met.

Unfortunatly your wish doesnt come true and he is at Greens door start next chapter pulling another role/con to keep his plans moving and kick off the story proper as he is multI tasking as villian and diabolus ex Machina in this tale.

 

[K_S]

Planning an impromptu visit with a plus one took more effort than Green thought it would. And it started with her phone….

Blue tooth and capable of three ways called. As she was the unknown all used tech would be traced to her. Thus her tech was tested, retested, and sent with Giovanni’s Honchcrow for a fly by over the center to make sure that it worked. Once its functionality as a phone was affirmed there were other tests, fly bys with the phone’s camera, and while Sevii’’s Mayor poured over the shots, (more cameras than permitted, another knock, the security contractor an illegal one. Sevii was like every other Region and was dogged in its laws. If it wasn’t their tech, it was to be documented. And not doing so would lead to fines… There were twelve cameras, and only two on the blue print, two given permits…

If Lysander corp really owned this place they were just digging themselves deeper and deeper and no one had even stepped in the door yet.

Having taken away her angry birds and put a lock on it, Green figures she had five of the six numbers down, would try them once he went to the bathroom or something. Green tried to pretend interest in the flyby pictures. Really she did. But the blueprints were more interesting, and the mayor was hogging those and waving them around and it was maddening.

“We could send a digging ‘mon for a basement check,” Green suggested. “You know, evil secret lair under the building, like a Flare base under the water plant. Like how Rocket has a base under the Game-“

And Giovanni’s glaring at her, and Sevii’s mayor is looking worried because… whoops, Green’s not supposed to know about that as a “little kid” she guessed.

Well, she’d throw the Rocket a bone because the contract and everything.

“Mask.. he made us break into that place once.” Green assumed a more down-trodden tone. “We had to use a pilloswine to dig a hole from a parking lot like… five miles before the Game Corner and keep digging until we got lucky and burrowed in.” And Giovanni’s looking a mite murderous. “We didn’t really find anything; well me and Silver didn’t since we were a team… Just a water heat-“

Alright maybe Greens figured why he’s looking a bit irritated, she’d almost forgotten about that. How they’d cut through a metal thing, a giant can Silver’d called it, and the resulting leak had nearly flooded them in their digging route. They’d had to claw a mad path out, tunneling through a neighboring sewer system and running through the tunnels until they couldn’t stand the stink and crawled out through a manhole. The ice ground type had thrown a royal conniption over the scalding hot water and after they’d withdrawn her she’d refused to come out of her pokeball to lead the way through the sewers. So it’d been Silver and Sneasel who’d made ice patches to cover their getaway…

And Green sorta wondered what would have happened if they’d gotten caught back then, nothing good she was sure… But one of the Rockets that’d screamed before skidding into raw sewage might have been Surge… Maybe.

So definitely nothing good then.

After, Mask had chucked them both in Brown’s room for two days for being utterly worthless and had stripped them to a week’s half ration on top of that... Suffice to say that’d been a bad mission.

“No one is going to have anyone dig in with a… like a…” The mayor swallowed, fought to look soothing, and mainly looked horrified. “No one’s digging under anything, alright?”

No no.. the woman wasn’t getting it at all. Checking the urge to roll her eyes Green sniffled. “No no.. not us I mean… he’s Viridan’s Earth badge leader gym… thingie… And we’ve got this new phone and all… I bet.. Maybe with a diglet… we could.”

“You’re asking Rhydon to dig a hole for you, dig a tunnel, to look a possible “bad guy lair”?” Giovanni drawled.

Alright, when phrased like that… no… Green was not going to ask Rhydon to dig her anything. Because the last order ground type heard was to make Green’s hole deeper and bury her in it… So, no, Green wasn’t going to ask Rhydon anything. Still, she shot Giovanni a glare, because it wasn’t a bad idea.

Mew when was the man anything but a wet blanket?

“Alright, Mr. Gym Leader, what do you suggest.”

“Top to bottom break-in, very few people think to look up.”

“Great, what about the cameras.”

How do you normally deal with cameras…”

XX

“And that’s why I need to borrow Sneas-“

“No.”

“But camera’s Sil’ if I have Blasty ice beam them he’ll bring the roof down…”

And because the new phone has a camera Green can see each sullen motion and he can see her pout. Which in turn turns to him wincing. Supereffective indeed, he’s just as vulnerable and Green’s milking it. Hard. Their back and forth is the mayor’s entertainment while she eats. In the back of the kitchen Giovanni’s shamelessly eavesdropping while he tosses something together having seen “the lady” fed first.

And Silver’s aware they’re there, just ignoring them, which Green’s doing too.

“We’re talking less than a half a day here…”

“Our accounts were locked remember, by Oak, he shunted our stored team into the reserve?”

Yeah, Green misses Abby, and wants to kick Oak now, but that isn’t the point.

“Well our old teams locked up, but your Da’ did unlock us for new catches through the League overrides. That’s why you were able to get Telsa checked out at the center.”

Silver’s face dos some odd sort of gymnastics while he turns red clearly not having known and probably about to say something stupid so Green chimes in.

“Speaker Sil’”

“Can you not call him that?” It’s strangled, And while Green gets it she’s seen way too much of denial to let any stand for a second. He really should know that. And it makes her sorry that the truth hurts but she’s not sorry enough to stop.

But because it is Silver and she loves him she can gentle this a little.

“But Da makes him flinch.” Green whines and Sil’ snorts. Softening slightly. “Really you’re missing out here.”

A chair scrapes as Giovanni joins the table. A slice of toast surrounded by a nest of sliced fruit, an island against an egg sea of… were they poached? Scrambled? Green’s not sure, but that’s the Rocket’s breakfast.

No souls of the innocent, or wine, or anything bloody or crying or screaming. Huh. Green tips the camera so Silver can look around, it fills up the quiet.

“So what’d you wind up having for dinner?”

Because time zones and it was pretty late in Viridian now even if it was stupid early here.

“Green’s Uncle, Will, has a secret stash of pop-tarts. I ate one of those.”

“A poptart.” Because Green’s vocalizing the utter disdain on both adult’s faces. Of course Silver totally misunderstood the concern.

“Yeah, Yellow’s on a “only eat healthy stuff” thing going on so Will’s got a stash of junk food scattered around the house. I’ve been taking nips of everything so he doesn’t notice one specific thing going down. He just thinks he’s eating it since it’s such a small amount.

“Silver!” Green whines because Giovanni looks this close to saying something and Sevii’s mayor has a hand clapped over his wrist to keep him from saying anything. Because Giovanni not talking had been one of Silver’s terms to him talking to her when Giovanni was present. Silvia had been added to the list when she started asking questions that Giovanni’d likely asked if he could. She’d lasted five minutes. “That’s not eating!.”

“I know I know…” The redhead huffed. “I guess I gotta pick a fight with some trainers and buy some real food. I was just… busy… and then things started getting bad with you and I worried…”

Worried himself nearly sick and off his food, they’d talked about this… he said he’d stopped doing that. Guess not. But now was not the time to point that out.

“Anyway, I kinda forgot to eat.”

“Well next time you “forget” to eat I’m putting Mr. Sparkly white coat’s song in your phone, as a virus.”

“Snea’snea’ keeps bringing me Pidgiottos…”

“Snea’snea’ has a brain in her head and she doesn’t forget to eat.” It’s a weird backdrop. Of adults politely ignoring her and trying to eat while she chews her old team mate out about something so simple. Probably not helping Silver, but they’d insisted on being here, so this was not her fault. “I know you weren’t raised in a barn…”

“No, I was raised in a cell.”

Silverware scraped and someone was choking. Green’s more than used to shock evasion. She’d taught him after all. They’d used it against Oak and the Goodie Squad, to keep them from asking dangerous questions or shut them up.

“That was a four out of ten… “ Green ruled. “Ok situational timing, but bad tone. You’re supposed to sound sad, or flippant, not irritated.”

“Well, you’re irritating me. And I got a six out of ten, someone’s choking.”

“Eight out of ten, but only if someone dies.”

“Says the person who only gets ten out of tens.”

“Creator bonus.”

“Yeah, right…”

“Seriously Sil’ promise me you’re going to go out and get dinner”

He huffs and hums and looks out a window with a grimace.

“I know it’s not raining, so don’t try that lie.”

“Nah, I’m not that stupid… There’s some kid with a Charmander poking around F- Giovanni’s gym, I’ll shake him down for some money and get a good breakfast with it.”

“Dinner or I swear I don’t care about hotdog men, I’ll swipe Giovanni’s Honchkrow and fly to Viridian to ram food down your throat.”

“Fine dinner.” And he rolls his eyes at her. “Happy?”

“Where?”

“Ung you’re impossible Green. There’s a soup and salad place by the gym, I’ll go there, splurge, get both, alright?

“Promise?” Because if he doesn’t he won’t, he’ll “forget” or something else.

“I promise, but only if you promise not to hit the bank and mail me half of your check for this stupid job. You gotta eat too, and survival bars three times a day don’t count.”

And there’s adult disapproval pointed at her now, she can feel it, heavy and thick.

“Why’d I let you out of your cell again?”

“Because you saw my puppy eyes and went “Wow, that’ll get me a lot of free food if I wave it at old people”. Also you couldn’t reach the last vent, needed a boost.”

“Riiight.” Green drawled. “Now I remember.”

“What’d you eat today Green?”

“Oatmeal,” nasty honey-soaked oatmeal and only half a bowl but she’s not letting him think he’s got the upper hand, ever. Snapping an apple slice off of Giovanni’s plate (his fault he was sitting to close) Green took a loud bite. “Fruff…”

“Ung… not helping!” A thump from beyond her range of sight and Silver’s up, grumbling. “Not ag- Sneasal put that down right now! I mean it! It’s not even dead! I’ve got Green on the phone and do you think she wants to see a bird? No she doesn’t. Put that right where you found it, right now.”

Chitters, a screeched complaint, then a thump and slam. The last is a window slamming shut Green’s sure.

“I’m sorry she’s just….”

“Worried out of her mind, for her dum dum trainer who forgets to eat.”

“Trying to depopulate Viridian For- Crap I shouldn’t have said that.” Shaking his head Silver frowns, slumping into the bean bag he’s scavenged and dragged into Yellow’s bedroom. Phone in hand he holds it over his head, giving Green a weird view of Yellows room by accident and he’s upside down, sprawled and irritated.

“Look I can’t give you Sneasel, she’s acting all worked up.”

And Green agrees and give up with a sigh. Fingers tapping Green tires to think of how to get rid of cameras, fast. She could hack them but that takes ages and…

“What about all those Joltik?”

“They’re barely trained, I mean Telsa’s doing OK, hoping into pockets at command and getting a nice bite going, but she’s the only one paying any mind to anyone. And that’s cuz I gave her some nice batteries.”

“And because you’re a good trainer.”

“Yeah, that too.”

And Telsa, perhaps hearing her name and smelling the phone’s charge is creeping up on the bean bag, Silver’s hair starts to shift in response to the bug’s static field.

“But does Yellow want all these… synthetic ‘mon in her house? she’s so… natural… you know?”

Silver’s brightening, seeing the end of his tick herding days as retrieving the ten of them every night clearly had been a pain. Even so, he hadn’t whined about it, he didn't whine about anything. Even about being raised in a cell and the Mask. But he did brighten when something was going his way.

And getting rid of those ticks clearly was making his day… night… whatever.

“Alright… but I can only have six ‘mon because our accounts are down. How can I send you eleven ‘mon?”

“Well we could trade Telsa for Horsea… she’s not good out of water. Ditty’s with… well you know…”

He did know and had done things to Giovanni’s Viridian office in retaliation. Hopefully, Giovanni’d be in his office when the glitter bomb went off, but if he wasn’t it’d still be a royal mess, a deserved one, and Green hadn’t warned him about it. Yellow hadn’t either and was using her time at school to look up theater things because they were running out of ammunition, and all three of them wanted lots of it to get back at him for punching Green.

“Alright, that’s a few of them, what about the others?”

“If I ask them a question are you going to hang up?”

“With Him there? Yeah. But… how about I jump that Charmander kid he likes to train at the Center. I can catch him there and call you back.”

“After you get something to eat”

And he must have been hungry because he didn’t whine at her added demand.

“K’,” Because bullying a kid into a fight wasn’t bad, not really, that’s what the Journey was all about. Beating people up and taking their money. “Have fun and don’t get caught.” And for fairness’ sake she swiped off an orange slice off of the mayor’s plate, he made a face because for him oranges were “ew” to a near gagging level. No matter how hungry he got.

“Same to you.” Because Silver’d never said anything simple. “Bye” was beyond the kid.

Which was why Silver was undeniably, and utterly, a dork.

“Love you too you dork!”

“Ung why can’t you just hang up and not make it sappy Green, why!” Because he’s squirming like mad, that’s why and it’s funny, so double why. Still, Green shows some mercy and hangs up like Silver’d wish she would. Finishing her bite Green looks up at the… well they looked like they were fresh from the freezer, the adults. So pale and still. Its’ rather creepy.

Not her problem.

“So we’ve got maybe ten minutes because Silver’s going to run to the gym run to the center, and if he doesn’t see that kid he’s going to break into the center and pick a fight with them there.”

He kinda had oo, the soup and salad place he was talking about closed in half an hour.

“I’ve a number of questions….”

And while this is a heck of an opportunity to get a lot of money and get back at him for so much…

“No.”

“If it’s money I’ll pay-“

He’s such a Rocket. You don’t need a uniform to see it. How can people not? Green shakes her head even as he pulls out his wallet to “make his point”.

That he’s stupid, he’s got that down pat, Green’s lips curl into a sneer.

“You don’t get it. We need an answer in less than twenty minutes, an answer for Silver. Not whatever answers you think you need. Do you have anything?”

And she’s making that demand towards both adults. Silvia shakes her head, with a wry “I’m sorry sweetie but I’m not a trainer, I don’t have any idea how it works.”

Sliding his wallet back into his pocket Giovanni’s dark eyes lock on her, then he looks away, seemingly reading invisible texts they flick so fast left to right.

“I can grant you a temporary license that’ll allow you to hold and release a ‘mon from a pokeball. And I don’t have a full team since this is a “civilian” visit, so that should cover the stragglers.”

“Why would I need a license?” Silvia wondered nibbling on a bite, face thoughtful.

“DNA scanners are in most ‘mon tech. Pokeballs, commercial ones, are synched to a mega data system, they lock unless a registered trainer handles them. I can have you registered with a call. If you aren’t and handle a ball even to pass it to Green it’ll cause a lag as the tech needs to re-register who’s holding it. At best it’s’ just a little lag, at worse, there’ll be some sort of lock mechanism about the facility. It’s not a good way to find out and we’ll need every second.”

“And there’s a six ‘mon cap. I can hold more than six pokeballs, but nothing beyond the sixth will open.”

“Oh.”

“But how’s Silver going to trade them all over?”

“I’ve a portable ‘mon transfer system in my suitcase. I’ll set it up. It’s going to be plodding.” The Rocket warned, standing. “One at a time, but it’s synched to a unit in my office. Tell him, when he calls back, that he has clearance to access the gym, the hand scan will take him DNA. The unit’s on the desk of my office.” Tipping his head, Giovanni frowned. “Has he ever traded before?”

“Yeah,” Did he still have Blue’s Rhydon? Green wasn’t sure.

“It’s a very similar program.”

“I’ll tell him that when he calls.” And remind him about the… ohh boy… where had he put that trap? Green’s struggling to remember. Well Silver’d set it, so he’d be fine. Right?

Right.

When the first pokeball hums over, appearing on what Green would have sworn was a thin metallic plate with a groove, the thing was like a mini-teleport pad and she’s remembering Silph just watching it work… the pokeball appears shimmering into existence on a neat little puff of… glitter.

Guess Silver had forgotten too.

Little wonder he’d refused to turn on the visual on his phone or sounded sulky, still in a little bit the ‘mon were over, and Sevii’s mayor was a new ‘trainer, with a registrar number and everything.

Giovanni had dryly offered to grant the “good mayor” joint citizenship, since the service was in his field, roundabout mind.

“I’m not changing my citizenship, you Kantoians are crazy.”

“Since today was a borderline illegal sort of day I just thought I’d offer.” He’d concluded, “But if you aren’t interested…”

“Not in a million years.”

“The first break in’s a bit weird,” Green admitted, pocketing her phone, Silver was done with everyone and everything from his tone. And likely to break something in Giovanni’s office out of spite. She wasn’t going to be listening in on that or let Giovanni listen in on that. “It’s when you get past the scary and realize it’s fun that it balances out. When you break in for the right reasons, not because some nutcase with a mask is making you do it…” The girl admitted, admiring how the mayor was able to get her dress to fold just so to hide the shrunk-up pokeballs near perfectly. Green’s skirt was too short to carry off the look. She’d hide her team in her pocket and under her backpack and deal with the poking. Nothing new, but she’ll have to get some longer dresses, it was a nice trick. “The belt looks nice.”

It’s thin, more than an ambitious strap, but with a nice floral pattern stamped into it to give it some pop.

“Thank you.”

She’s pretty when she smiles, but her smile’s too wide, too bright, and her eyes are wrong and… And she’s clearly not Silver’s mum. And not likely to make the cut as step mum, still there’s no reason to be mean about her failings. Her belt and hair are pretty so Green tells her so, then gets to the point.

“Just do what Silver does.” Green advised. Tools in hand, Silvia is gathering up the blueprints, for her legal complaints while Giovanni’s scraping of the debris on his transfer device, bemused. Clearly having no clue what the rest of his office looks like just then. “Tell yourself, it’s for the best of reasons. It got us through a lot.”

“The best of reasons?”

“Good ones, no one else gets hurt, or sick if we do this right. And you aren’t breaking into anything, just passing me your ‘mon and then I’m breaking into things. But I’m not really breaking anything. Just feeding some joltik. Think of it like that and everyone wins.”

“Spoken like a true politician.” Giovanni drawled. Clean up done and ready to go and going to start herding them along towards gone.

“Ung Gio, just no.” Snapping up her purse, papers in hand, the Mayor’s arguing even as she’s being lead out. “That’s not how a politician-“

“My dear, I know politicians…”

Green tones them out, sure of her stuff and team she takes up the rear, tucking under the Rocket’s umbrella to avoid getting wet on the way to the car. It’s not growlithe and meowths level pouring, but close enough for her not to want the second shower for taking a short walk out in it.

Hopefully, their destination is dry.

 

[Navar]

Decided to read this one since it's on review tag and that thread hasn't been updated since June. Will mostly describe my reactions reading the first chapter.

Set in the Manga verse, a gift for a writer on a different site. I figured I'd share it here.

Oh! I love the manga! Haven't read it in a while but I do remember being reaaaally into it when I was a teen. Already interested since that universe tends to have better development for the characters than the games.

The Roombas with the knives had been the first incident.

This is hilarious. I love it.

“I swear to Mew,” the

Very interesting choice of words, considering that Arceus tends to be the one most writers choose for this kind of sentence.

”The other ‘dex holders… Well after they decided Lance was perfectly alright never mind the guy tried to fry half of Kanto. Well after that they pulled out a donphan load of crap about Him being redeemed. Never mind we told them what He did…

Oh hey this is surprising. Never expected them to just forgive Lance after all the crap he pulled during that arc. Which, to be honest, is a nice change of pace to make the whole elite four evil.

A choked sob, and some static, he waited out the girl’s crying jag. Taking a draw from his drink, cursing that it’d taken all of ten minutes for things to go to such utter hell, Giovanni mulled over what wasn’t being said. Pryce, redeemed, and clearly wanting something to do with his old slaves, the story was suspect from first to last. If Giovanni’d stopped, lingered, perhaps even made an attempt on that old Ice Trainer’s life, he might have been there long enough to see and interfere.

Giovanni has a neat moment of characterization here. He never walked away from being a gangster, it's what he does best, and he knows that, too. He's aware that's who he is. I liked this.

“How about this, I’ll cut you a deal, Green Azule. You help me, I’ll help you. And I’ll be a gentleman and help you first. I come, just me, no one from the Team, no armies, no mafia, no experiments to wreak havoc. I appear, on the doorstep of your parents’ home, unarmed, as indisputable proof of all your stories. I bring proof, of the Mask of Ice, of Silph, of anything and everything you need to prove to your parents what you need to prove to them.”

Another neat piece. he offers to help this girl, Green. Of course, he expects something in return, like the cunning man that he is. I think this is a good deal overall, and Green obviously accepts it for the story to continue.

That's about it! If I have the time for it I'll probably read the next chapter. For now, I like the setup of the story, to be honest, never expected Green and Giovanni to team up, but I quite enjoyed what you wrote so far. Keep up the good work.

 

[Spiteful Murkrow]

Heya, I'd been making a point to go back and throw some reviews at people who'd given me feedback over Review Blitz and saw that I hadn't gotten around you yet. And that you had a request for a review for this story open for a while on Review Tag. Now, I didn't have the energy to get to the second and third chapters, but I figured that I'd go ahead and work towards a position where I could get at them. Since yeah, might as well take a crack at filling that open Review Tag myself.

Chapter 1

The Roombas with the knives had been the first incident.



That’d taken a day to sort out. Though the Roomba with a ceiling fan, with knives atop the spinning fan blades, had been moderately exciting. Still, they were easily dispatched. Rhyhorn had kicked the reappropriated cleaning device, causing it to tip. The adlibbed improvised saw blade spun futilely into the floor for a while, digging gouges into the carpets while the boss of Team Rocket watched on in bemused fascination.



The downed device made a peculiar backdrop as he turned upon the inept clutch of humanity who had been his security teams and tore into them. One blistering ultimatum, which boiled down to him giving them twenty minutes to corral and dispose of the remaining knife-wielding ‘bots or they’d be disposed of and he’d let them get to work.

Yeah, I'd be cranky if someone's discount killer deathbot tore up my flooring too. ^^;

Suffice to say the rest of the robots were dispatched almost immediately.



Once sure it wasn’t rigged to blow, or anything else, he’d taken the juvenile attempt at murder with him to his office. After letting Rhyhorn rip off the pointy bits and bobs, mind. A set of purloined tools and he had it broken down into its components.



The results were… interesting.



Obviously adlibbed improvised, the fan and most of the additives to the Roombas were low quality. Probably stolen. An internet search would later find his hypothesis correct. An article sporting a shot of an eatery that’d just been broken into – such a minor crime, and only interesting because it had not been sanctioned by him- had had a shot of their entryway. The picture of an archway leading deeper into the facilities would confirm that the fan on his desk was likely from that place. There were knives that had been reported stolen, and the company logo on them wasn't utterly worn off.

Giovanni: "I don't know whether I should feel thankful or insulted that whoever tried to do this was too incompetent to put explosives on these things." >_>;

But that search was held off, by two finds.



There were a handful of red hairs, bright and long, tucked into a nook of the device. Those he pulled out, ran over his fingers as he wondered.



And while he could have sent them off to his research department to confirm…



There were enough other hints that it'd be redundant.

Ah. Well that explains why the culprit thought of using knifes on Roombas and not explosives. Too young and inexperienced to make the latter work. :V

The work on the wires, the rerouting, and cuts, there were hints of ice damage where things had been moved about. There’d also been a few fine black hairs of a dark type… The crisp NeverMelt about the follicles marked the fur as part of the Sneasel line, and after that last find…



Well, DNA testing just wasn't needed.

Lovely family dynamic there, Giovanni. Reunions must be quite the event. o<o

A flip through the varied periodicals, after reading about the local break-in, had not gotten him quite what he was looking for. Recalling what he’d learned from various spies and psychics, he turned his attention from local matters to those of far-flung Sevii. When no feel-good periodical piece popped up, about reunions and heroics, he saluted the girl’s cunning and consulted quieter avenues. A comb over the school systems of the Sevii islands procured a list of new students, and… well the child had a rather uncommon name and had the poor fortune of being unable to coax her parents to change it, go into hiding, or take any major effort to obscure her presence.

Oh right. It's a Silver and Green story. This is the 'Green' side of the equation, I see.

Backtracking from academic records, where he'd found the girl had been home long enough to be starting a second semester in some academy or other, it'd been child's play to trace academics those records to a home address, to a phone number.



Making the call, well he’d been considerate, accommodating time zones and making a point of calling her at a reasonable time outside of her class schedule. He'd even granted her a few hours past her last class to accommodate any after-school nonsense she might be indulging.

Uh... yeah, I do not trust amity of any sort coming from Giovanni, so there has to be some sort of horrible catch to all of this. [fearfullaugh]

Lounging in his home office, half past three in the morning his time, he’d set a cup of coffee before him and took sips at it between rings.



It wasn’t a long wait for her patience to break.



She was as she’d been in all their encounters. Rude, impatient, and impertinent. Letting him get routed to voice mail five times before picking up was petty incarnate inconsiderate. Perhaps hoping some tracking software or other would give her an answer to who this was without having to pick up. Well, she could hope, but it wouldn’t, and he’d set his device to automatically call hers unceasingly. On the sixth call, in utter irritation, she picked up to tell him off.

... Should've just smashed the phone there, but okay, Green.

“I swear to Mew,” the girl’s voice carried quite well, and Giovanni eased the phone from his ear a bit. “Whoever the heck this is, you’ve got to be the pushiest telemarketer ever! I’m telling you, once, right now, I don’t want whatever you’re selling-“



“I was wondering if Silver might be with you and available to talk.”



Silence, broken by a yelp of terror, then a dial tone was his answer.

... Okay, maybe she did smash the phone there.

Clearly Green had not learned any manners since the whole incident at Silph Co. He hadn’t expected much from a child who had allied with other children to tear down a building in response to a perfectly reasonable hostage situation. Frustrated that a long day had bled into a long, pointless, night, and that the next day would be met with precious few hours of sleep he let things stand. Resolving to tolerate the child’s skittishness for a week, before taking things up personally.



Both he and the child were spared that though because a half week of calling at exactly the same time garnered him more productive results. She picked up when he called, and spoke, rather than hung up.



“He’s not here.”



Well at least she cut to the chase; he hadn’t even needed to repeat himself.

Surprised that Green didn't just drop the line right there, but let's see where this is going...

“And you don’t know where he’s at?”



“Around, about. We tried… He tried to settle here after… Celebi... but things weren’t good.”



Celebi, and Illex, had been a turning point. At death's door due to a Legend's malice taking the form of disease he'd appealed a different Legend. And on an apathetic whim, the Healer had intervened.



He’d been given a second chance at life, poisons purged, damages reversed, and shaking the light of Celebi’s healing from his eyes Giovanni had found himself surrounded by Lance and the dex’ holders. And while Pryce had been there, and the old man’s presence had been a temptation to divest the old fool of his life, the Rocket’d considered his audience. Surrounded by children and their powerful beasts he weighed morals against sense and decided it was saner to withdraw. Taking his army of Rockets with him had been a mercy, and backhanded thanks for their efforts in speeding along the circumstances of his healing.

Wew, too cheap to send a card, huh? :V

Letting Silver and Green be had been an attempt, roundabout mind, of reconciliation. If the boy wanted nothing to do with him, then fine. He'd let his child make his way with his closest companion for the time being. Eventually, he'd ease the boy back to his side but in that moment of being reborn...



He'd decided to be magnanimous.



Clearly, such generosity had been a mistake.

>implying leaving your child who you have a poisonous relationship with alone is """magnanimity"""
Well, can't say he's not Gio with an ego like that. o<o

“What happened?"



Silence was the girl's answer, and only the lack of dial tone told him she hadn't hung up again. He strained his ears and he could hear subtle background noises. The crunch of her footfalls, this the hiss of surf and beach. He wondered if she were foolish enough to be having this call on speaker, her voice murmured, something in response to a salutation, confirming his hypothesis. So he waited, while she walked, and she gathered her thoughts.



“We ditched Oak’s goodie goodie squad almost as fast as you did.” Her tones were a curious mix, sickly sweet and acidly sharp. “If you’d of stuck around ohhh ten minutes, we’d of probably bugged you for a lift out of that mess.”

That tone gives me some doubts, just saying.

The past, and its regrets, even ones he hadn’t been aware of, were worthless things to mull over. Still, his hands clenched, as frustration seethed in his gut. Ten minutes, how could have things gone to hell that fast… If he’d lingered, even a portion of that span, he might have overheard something. Found some reason or way to twist things so that Silver could have gone with him… Hell, he should have just taken Silver with him.



But it was in the past, and the past, despite Pryce’s mad, roundabout, efforts, was as it’d ever been. Unretrievable. Drawing a deep breath the Rocket Boss flattened his hands on the desk’s edge. Violence, for now, would get him nothing.

Surprised that this guy is just trusting a girl who's a notorious trickster character in the manga, but okay Giovanni.

However, information gathered now could be applied later.



He exhaled, slow and soft, willing the rage back for now.



“What happened?”



”The other ‘dex holders… Well after they decided Lance was perfectly alright never mind the guy tried to fry half of Kanto. Well after that they pulled out a donphan load of crap about Him being redeemed. Never mind we told them what He did…” The child’s voice crackled, under the wash of pain. Of humiliation of a confession dismissed, a lifetime of pain disregarded, and the knowledge that these “heroes” weren’t as good as they seemed, was revisited. “We left. I gave Oak his ‘dex back and, screw him, I kept Blasty. Silver returned Fer’ to Elm though. We were done, with Oak, the League, and the other ‘dex holders.”

Ah yes, this would explain the AU-ness of the story. I admittedly never read this arc of the manga, but... yeah, that does sound like Lance got let off the hook more than a little easily.

A choked sob, and some static, he waited out the girl’s crying jag. Taking a draw from his drink, cursing that it’d taken all of ten minutes for things to go to such utter hell, Giovanni mulled over what wasn’t being said. Pryce, redeemed, and clearly wanting something to do with his old slaves, the story was suspect from first to last. If Giovanni’d stopped, lingered, perhaps even made an attempt on that old Ice Trainer’s life, he might have been there long enough to see and interfere.



But he hadn’t, and this was the fallout.



Finding her voice, and anger all at once, the girl, Green, rallied. “We don’t owe no one anything, and no one has any leverage over us and… And we tried to go home… To my home….” One drawn breath, deep and shaking, anger felled as reality set in. “And it didn’t work out.”

Not sure if you want to be telling Giovanni all of this, Green. But let's see where this is going.

He could pry. Ply out details; twist her with mere words until she was telling him everything by playing on her fears and striking her vulnerabilities. All it’d take would be the mere hinting of his power and resources. He obviously had her number; he clearly knew where she lived and her schedule. He could disappear her parents with a call, less than a handful of words and her whole family would be at his mercy, and she’d have to tell him everything to get them back.

Yeah, see. This is why you shouldn't be so open to him.

Old Rocket ploys, yes, but from what he’d heard from the mouths of the other children culled by the Mask of Ice, such were the motions of Pryce’s own power games. Drink done, Giovanni set aside his glass and considered the lit clock on the back wall. Basic arithmetic confirmed it was nearing four a clock, Sevvi time, if Green lingered any longer on this walk she’d likely be missed.



To that anxiety, that remembered and present sense of wondering and worry for his child, Giovanni, the Boss of Team Rocket, indulged mercy of a sorts.



“I think… we have a bit to talk about, face to face.” It wasn’t quite a suggestion and he heard her breath catch as she cottoned on to the threat. “Commercial phones are horridly insecure.”

Green: "... Any chance we could try using payphones first?"

Giovanni: "No." >:|

“I don’t want you here.” Old indignation, old beliefs were tabbed on as a venomous afterthought. “You’re as bad as he is.”



The poor child couldn’t even say Pryce’s name. That’s how hard and deep the man’s hooks were in her psyche.



“Can you get to me here? Because that's the only other option."



Silence, as she wrestled juvenile back talk and logic and came up with nothing, witty or otherwise, to say.

Giovanni: "I'll take that as a 'no'. Anyhow..."

“How about this, I’ll cut you a deal, Green Azule. You help me, I’ll help you. And I’ll be a gentleman and help you first. I come, just me, no one from the Team, no armies, no mafia, no experiments to wreak havoc. I appear, on the doorstep of your parents’ home, unarmed, as indisputable proof of all your stories. I bring proof, of the Mask of Ice, of Silph, of anything and everything you need to prove to your parents what you need to prove to them.”



“That you’re the Boss of Team Rocket?”



“Don’t get uppity, brat.” Giovanni sneered, lips quirking despite his warning. Of all the cheek… “But my services come with one, small, string attached,”



“I help you find him? Silver?”



“Correct, so do we have a deal?”

Giovanni:

Green: "You aren't making this any easier for me, you know." >_>;

Green lingered in the line, near perfectly silent, thinking over angles and edges until, at last. “I want two days, to think about it, and to pick a time.”



Reasonable, more than. More than reasonable. He said as much and she chirped, utterly false and carefree, how he wasn’t obviously the Boss of anything, he was too much of a pushover for that. It was a flimsy effort to cover for his candor and if he were using a commercial line… Well, it might have held in a court of law to cover him. Still, her effort was appreciated, and he ended the call with a wry.



“Goodbye Green, two days, same time, I expect an answer.”

Green: "And if I don't give one?"
Giovanni: "Oh trust me, I'm getting one one way or another."

“Whatever you say, Uncle G!”



To that uncalled-for bit of sass Giovanni resolved to bring his largest flying type from his stable of reserve pokemon when he did swing by. Her hanging up, thus assuring she got the last word in, cemented that plan. He'd get something large, and nasty-minded, and malicious. All the better to properly scare her senseless and dissuade her from running her mouth at him.



"Uncle G", of all the damned fool things…

Well that's certainly an ominous close to your Prologue.

Alright, so for my overall thoughts... it's an interesting opener, and it gives some insight into the different characters. Both in who Green is as someone who's been badly hurt by past events and looking for someone to turn to, and from Giovanni as a ruthless and manipulative type who is able to exploit Green's lingering traumas and insecurities to get an opening at his son.

I do feel that it might have made sense to try and give a bit more elaboration as to manga events for your readers, since... yeah, it's not as well-known a branch of the franchise, and I admittedly only had a hazy recollection of most of the events brought up here. More explicitly spelling out the 'how and why' of some things such as the sorts of things that Lance did that made the others' declaration of him as redeemed so galling to Green would've gone a long way on that front. Also, the spacing is admittedly a bit distracting. You might want to condense it down into something more compact so that was it's visually easier to follow for readers.

All-in-all though, I think it accomplished what it needed to for an opening, and it was a neat glimpse into an incarnation of mainline characters that are at once familiar and noticeably different. So good job there, @K_S , and good luck with your other writings here on TR. ^^

 

[Spiteful Murkrow]

Heya, was a bit of a grind at a less-than-sane hour, but I got in a chapter review for your story that can properly apply to Review Tag:

Chapter 2

It was a regular night, not quite sundown, a bit after dinner. And because dinner wasn’t takeout there were things to do after dinner. Mum was cleaning the dishes, Green drying them beside her, perched on a step stool because she wasn’t quite tall enough to reach everything yet. Though Green only needed the first step, not the second, which she’d so proudly scampered up a mere two days before her capture. Upon that second step, she’d stood tiptoe, so proud, crowing, look, she was an adult and could do adult things now. She was tall enough…

Well that’s certainly ominous.

But then two days had passed, and then a few years after that.

And she needed only the first step now and likely wouldn’t need it much longer.

Still, Mama’s arm around her shoulder, an idle hug, leaving wet dampness behind, was welcome, as were all the small things that reaffirmed Green was home.

Oh. So Green is back home after a period of a few years being separated involuntarily from home. That… was admittedly a little hard to parse from the opening paragraph, and is something you might want to play around with to try and smooth out. ^^

The main sounds of the moment were water running, the soft scrape of soapy fabric over plastic and silverware, interspaced interspersed by the click of things being set in their place. There came a different click, and the soft muted babble afterwards confirmed that it was the TV that Daddy’d turned on. Static, and clicks, and flickers from the corner of her eye confirmed he was hunting up searching for a news station for them to enjoy. Watching the news was a family thing, where they talked about what was being said, thoughts and feelings and worries were things to be openly bantered about, and since it was election season politicians were to be made fun of too.

Especially if they were scandalous.

Pretty sure that I’d rather watch cartoons, but hey, if it gets the family all together with each other, you could do worse.

“Mind your feet, young lady.” Mum huffed and Green smiled back, settling herself more towards the center of her perch to get the last plate up just right. Making a point of doing but did so safely because Mum liked it like that.

So Green’d do so to make her happy.

I’m… not sure if I fully followed what was going on here between Green and her mother. I’m assuming it had something to do with Green’s stance on the step-stool, but the prose was admittedly a little confusing here.

There were a lot of clicks and grumbles from the living room. as Being on the edge of two Regions did allow the perk of being able to receive twice as many stations if one had the right set of skills to catch them. Her father worked in electronics and computers; he was more than good to do so, even if it were mildly illegal to do so without paying premiums.

Won’t the reception to both regions leave a lot to be desired though thanks to distance?

Not that Green cared. Mum’d complain about it, sure, but she would stop when Dad found her a new Johtoian soap for her to while pass the late hours when she had insomnia or nightmares.

Immersed in the comfortingly familiar surroundings, the rap on the front door nearly made Green hop. Though hopping was stupid. She should have expected it. He said he was coming…

But she hopped and Mum braced her, coaxing her down and giving the door and its knocker a withering look, never mind that it’d never be seen

Mother: “... Dear, should I be worried right now?”

Green: “No! No! Not at all!”

Green didn’t need Mum’s assurances; this visitor was more than expected. Fear on the decline She relaxed and let her fears ebbed away, because he’d promised to behave civilized and she wasn’t stupid enough to trust that, so Green’d promised herself she’d make sure he kept his promise. And she had Nido’s pokeball in her pocket, the ‘mon inside with orders to sit on him pointy sides down, to encourage that good behavior.

With that assurance, because she trusted Nido’, almost more than anything, Green tipped Mum a smile and shrug.

I’m presuming that this is Silver who’s due to come over given that… yeah, I don’t think doing this to Giovanni would end well. :V

“I’m alright.” Then louder, just to make sure Da heard, and if their guest did, all the better. “It’s proba’ly a ‘marketer Da!’” Green hollered, knowing he’d hear it. The walls weren’t paper-thin, but the kitchen was close to the entrance, so it was likely he did, Green didn’t really need to holler, but she did anyway. Because he seemed the type not to like loudness, he’d called Blue a brat for yelling at him about the hostages and…

And while petty, he wasn’t very nice, so Green didn’t need to be either.

Wait, if Silver’s not very nice, then why do you want him anywhere near your house? >:V

Sort of like how she didn’t have to contribute to the house's defenses by bugging the house's doorbell to shock anyone who rung it. And it was a shame he hadn’t rung it. It likely wouldn’t have mattered if he’d been shocked anyway, Red’s ‘chu probably numbed him to shocks and stuff.

The door swung open, enough to make the lock chain rattle, and she could hear him speaking to Da'.

“I understand this is a delicate time for you and your family, and that this is a deeply personal matter but… your child and mine have a commonality that we need to discuss… A shared history linked in Viridian…” And never mind she’d known he’d lead with the abduction. Shock was the fastest way to get the door open, and playing on old traumas, he’d said he would, but it made hearing even the allusions… no easier. Even with Mum wrapping her arm around her, and glaring balefully at the figure who was standing on the threshold. “I believe, Mr. Azule, that it would be best if the rest of this conversation occur inside.”

… Wait, so Green thought it was a good idea to just lead Giovanni straight to her parents? Why on earth would she have thought that was a good idea? .-.

He was talking to Da’ in smooth, soft, slightly accented words. Silver’d never spoken odd like that. Idly Green wondered why Silver never sounded like his father. Even as she nudged out of her mother’s hold and went closer.

Bristling, never mind Da' didn’t have a ‘mon to his name, and wasn’t meant for fighting, Da’ glared at him, with a stony expression stony.

“I’m sorry sir, but I think you’ve at the wrong house.”

“Really?” And forget every promise he made, of no armies, no mob, no danger, Giovanni Sakaki’s voice dropped to lethal levels. “This isn’t the home of Green Azule and her family? You might want to update your mailbox outside then.” Lips curling into a Persian’s grin, all edges, and cruelty, the Rocket bared his teeth at Da’, dark eyes thinning. “This isn’t the home of the child who rescued mine from the Mask of Ice-?“

Uhh… yeah, this is why you should’ve insisted to meet this guy at a police station or something, Green. Since I’m getting really, really bad vibes from this entire encounter right now.

“-That… You are not…” Da sputtered. Paling, because he hadn’t believed. Not him, or Mum, and part of their news watching was to show her about how things could look one way and be another. To help her critical thinking along enough so that she could tell them what really happened.

Um… yeah, no. Blindly trusting corporate media in this day and age is more or less a recipe for getting lied to on a repeated basis. And I distinctly remember that at a minimum, there were broadcast networks in Hoenn captured in Team Aqua’s sphere of influence in the manga’s continuity, and Team Flare did that with Kalosian news in multiple continuities, so… yeah. ^^;

It’d been a smothering sort of love, and she’d been so hungry for any type of love she’d forgiven them their unwillingness to listen. Accepted the domestic tranquility built about a lie, because for her, what was one more lie but another mark on the scoreboard?

Silver hadn’t agreed. He had argued and fussed in his quiet way, and finally, when they’d only responded to him with softness and evasions the redhead had snapped. One too many “the Mask is a delusion” talks and he’d stormed out, taking Murkrow and Sneasel, and not looking back.

Gee, I wonder why he didn’t take too well to hearing a major childhood trauma still raw in his memory called a delusion. Truly a mystery.

He'd called her, the first night he was off of Sevvi, to tell her he was alright, just not coming back. Or talking to her parents ever again. She was trying to wear Silver down, her birthday was in a few months after all, but maybe, Giovanni might be faster.

Which was the only reason she’d let him come here.

And though petty it was gratifying to see someone talk about the Mask of Ice and not get shut down, and shushed, and patted on the head, and told to think, really think, because such fanciful things happened in stories, dear heart, not to real people, not in the real world.

And Giovanni was still talking, in those clipped, accent-marred, words. “I assure you, Mr. Azule, I am not some actor paid off to reinforce whatever delusions you think your daughter is harboring. She doesn’t have that type of money and I don’t have that sort of time to waste. Not while my son is missing. My son, who was, in your custody for several months.”

Taking a deep breath, Giovanni’s posture eased, from the looming he’d partaken to bully Red, to a more sedate stance. “And the rest of this talk needs to happen inside.’

And seeing Da', so pale and shaken, but trying for bravery, trying so hard, Green softened. Da’ probably thought this was the Mask of Ice, even though she’d told Mum and Da’ who Mask was, a foreign gym leader, old and icy cold, sometimes made of ice, sometimes not. They just hadn’t listened well enough.

I mean, I don’t think “he’s an (allegedly) ex-mafia don who ran a(n allegedly) disbanded criminal syndicate” is magically going to make those two feel more at ease.

Still, Daddy was trying. So she set aside her anger and frustration, to chime in.

“He means Silver, Daddy. This is Silver’s Dad.” And full truth hovered on her lips; she swallowed it with a bitter smile, adding another mark. “He’s Viridian’s gym leader.”

“Despite Blue’s and Red’s deafening complaints to the contrary, I still am.”

Ah yes, as if Green didn’t need to make her parents nope out any harder than she already had.

And to that confession, Daddy stepped back, and Giovanni swept in. It was his trench coat that let him sweep, Green decided. Shame they’d just swept and mopped the day before or it’d really be “sweeping”. Slipping off his fedora Giovanni turned about, looking for a place to put his hat perhaps. They didn’t have a hat rack or anything. Hats were stored in your room, and Green had two hanging from her bedroom wall. So, when Green padded forward and offered her hand, rather imperiously mind, and he passed his hat down to her it was probably for the best that he didn’t know that the hall closet she was going to pop it into had the dust brooms and mops.

I swear that this girl has a death wish from the sheer number of things that she’s doing that she knows the mafia boss that she has no reason to trust isn’t being less-than-honest with her doesn’t like. ^^;

A screech from outside, the shadow of wings ghosting over the windows, and Green didn’t startle. Not openly. She had Sabrina to thank for that she supposed. Never mind she wanted to set Nido on the old Psychic witch and tell Nido to roll over the woman twice for trapping her in her own mind and reliving her abduction by the Mask’s bird over and over again...

And Giovanni was studying her expression as it happened. That tap of his foot on the floorboards as he entered hadn’t been a gesture to kick off some dirt before he got in. It was likely a signal and. And Green decided the dust mop bin was too good for Giovanni’s hat. She’d nip into the bathroom and flush the damned thing to teach him better manners.

Why would you do this while Giovanni is in the same room as your parents, Green?

A shame Mum caught her making a wrong turn and called her out on it. And if Green hadn’t known Silver as well as she did. Well, Silver had a funny way of letting his eyes crinkle right before he laughed, and Giovanni’s were doing that as he saw, and was perhaps amused by, her vindictive streak.

He didn’t laugh though. Only watched as she hung his hat on the bathroom’s doorknob (Green meant the place as a threat, she could nip in and accidentally drop it somewhere unpleasant at any time) and Giovanni nodded, understanding where exactly he stood with her.

Green, maybe don’t antagonize the mafia don while he’s right there with your family.

“I’m gunna get my phone off the charger. Silver called and left a message last night and some of the background noises were weird.”

It was curious to see a man she thought of in terms of “looming”, and “sneering”, a coagulation of stationary and cruel, perk up at words. And the customary venom, the mocking drawl when he talked down to her was- not gone- but dimmed. He considered her. Seeming to weigh her words for truth with obvious interest, and he made some sort of decision or other she supposed.

“I’d appreciate it.”

“And I’m getting my team.”

Again:

A snort, as he shifted his coat just so so she could see the flash of yellow and black on his belt. Great balls, likely his Gym Leader Team then. Wonderful. She’d stolen his badge, not earned it, if it got to the level of nasty where ‘mon were drawn, it’d be bad. Taking the stairs two at a time, she tried to remember if any Oak’s goodie goodie squad had earned the Earth badge honestly.

Maybe Red.

… Aren’t Ultra Balls the one that are yellow and black? I thought Great Balls were blue with red accents.

But Red was sulking on some mountain top, and had blocked her number almost as fast as she’d told Blue and Gold where they could shove their “new alliance”. Because while Giovanni wasn’t a litter of newborn meowth, he was a hell of a lot better than a man who abducted kids out of their homes and shoved them into freezers for giggles.

And fuck apologies. Because Pryce had had the guts to try to do that, seeing both his favorite pawns wince back from him, eyes wide, with obvious denials to his offer obvious.

Uh… yeah. “Sorry” feels more than a little inadequate considering what I know of the entire Mask of Ice subplot.

“I’m sorry” didn’t give her back her parents, or take away their fear, or her fear, or undo the ice damage to her hands, or bring back the kids the Mask had killed. Because there was one freezer in the back, one with a kettle of water kept steaming and he’d dipped one of the kids into it as an example and pulled him out when the masked “failed” kid had started really screaming. Then, as the boy was almost cooked to death, Pryce’d had his piloswine pull the boy out, and dropped him. Boiling water freezing as it hit the freezer floor, and the boy’d begged and screamed and they’d had to watch until the screaming stopped.

And then the body’d been left and whoever failed, however they failed, were locked in the freezer with that poor dead kid that no one knew the name of.

Did that actually happen in the manga, or is that something specific to this AU?

Will’d called him Brown because even frozen the blood eventually had darkened to a reddish-brown and it’d been the easiest thing to pick out once the ice had really started to build on the body.

“You ever clean out Brown’s freezer cell, Master, ever tell his parent what happened to him? What’d he do that was so bad that you left him to freeze and rot for five years?”

That'd been Green's last words to Pryce. Silver's had been more direct. A snarled "hail" and they'd both booked it under Sneasel's malice-born snowstorm. Both of them just about done with everyone and everything.

Hard to fault their reactions, honestly. Though these two should really see a therapist at some point.

Green’d known what Brown had done. Silver had too. The older kids whispered it among themselves. Brown had snapped, taking mission after mission in the same place had made him complacent. Hopeful. And he’d approached a police officer and been believed (hard to dispute a mask frozen to your face) and he’d been building trust and trying to get help.

And there’d been a bit on the news, something about missing children and it’d reached Mahogany and the Master had personally seen to recapturing Brown and… killing him… like that.

But all is forgiven because reasons! … Or at least that’d be the case were this not an AU.

And Green was in her room, not really sure how she got there for a moment. Alone, and shaking, because remembering Brown always made her shake. She stared blankly at her bed for who knows how long. When she was done crying she took her phone off the nightstand, and her team too. It was a simple thing to pick it up and pop it into her pocket, to swing her trainer’s belt and its holsters so it looked slightly off-center, fashionably so. Looing a bit more put together Green stole a moment to dab her face, purloining a pillow with a too-long case, then flipping it over so no one would know.

I… am not sure how she got there either, since I could’ve sworn there was no mention of a progression from Green’s room to the stairs earlier on.

You probably want to add a more explicit mention of that earlier in this scene as she goes up to get her team.

She took the stairs slowly, still, a bit spooked. More here than remembering she was able to see that Giovanni had moved the coffee table and laid paper, some photos, some maps, on the purloined furniture. Mum and Da’ were sitting across from him, on the couch, looking sick and shocked, holding hands.

Mum saw her first and with a furtive glance at Giovanni, that the man ignored, pipped in. “Sweetie, let me get your phone and I’ll play the message to Mr. Sakaki, shall I? Then you can go back to your room, and we’ll talk in the morning.”

That sounds like a really, really terrible idea there, but okay, Mrs. Azule.

Ignoring Mum, Green looked at the pictures. One of them, on the corner, with its familiar blotch of red-brown made her smile. Awful as it was, it was familiar, and she shook her head. Making the rest of the way down without a wobble.

“You found Brown’s room?”

“Mr. Henderson’s remains were discovered along with the other cells under Mahogany’s Gym last month. As I understand it Pryce is under investigation.”

Yeaaaah, “I’m sorry” kinda doesn’t get you out of legal charges. It’s a nice concept, but… yeah, no functioning justice system could allow this to skate. Or at least not without making a token attempt at caring about getting to the bottom of the matter.

There’d been a way out leading straight to Pryce’s gym. She could have... if they’d gone out that way they could have alerted Mahogany’s police, brought him down. Because missing children, claiming to be from the gym. Someone would have to look into that… But the vents had seemed safer and Green hadn’t wanted to take the time to find another route.

Because Silver’d gotten sick and when you got sick you got locked into Brown’s room until you got better... or not.

Ouch. Major “for want of a nail” energy there.

“His name was Henderson?”

Green was at the couch, settling in on the space between Da’ and the couch’s plush arm. Looking at the pictures, diagrams of the Mask of Ice’s main lair, with open interest, Green could actually trace out her escape path. She followed it with her eyes, once, twice, blinking sharply.

Green didn’t see how Giovanni’s face softened, just a little bit. “Brian Henderson, twelve years old, his family resided in Kalos, he was missing for eight years, his father was a cop, his mother deceased.”

Ah, so Brown is an AU character, since Kalos definitely did not exist at the time the MoI arc was going on.

Which explained why Bro- Brian had gone to the cops.

“Did you know him?”

“He was the first one that tried to run away,” Green whispered, picking up a picture. It wasn’t her cell, or Silver’s, the scorch marks meant it was likely Karen’s. She was the only one with a fire type after all. “They’d lock us up with him when we got sick or were bad. So no one’d ask “or else” when the Mask got really nasty because Brian was [ ] “or else”.

Dying like he did. We told ourselves stories, when the Mask wasn’t about, about how brave he was because even though he didn’t get it right, he tried. And if we were brave like him… maybe we could try but not die like him and make his dying worth it.”

You want to break up that last paragraph there, and I think you’re missing a few words here and there.

Da’ had slung an arm about her shoulder, drawn her close and she was shaking and hated herself for it. Hated Giovanni got to see it, though he was considering the photos as if looking for some answers on their glossy colored fronts. It was almost like privacy, almost.

“Silver was sick,” Giovanni’s head jerked up at that. “Not when he called me.” She promised. “Right before I got us out, he was catching something nasty. And the Mask was going to lock him in Brown- Brian’s room, and not let him out. Mask promised to do that to us, a lot.”

Silence, outside wings cast shadows into the room and she looked at the Rocket bitterly, almost hating Giovanni as much as Mask at that moment. Almost as much as Silver hated Oak, for maybe the same reason.

It might make sense to spell out why explicitly Green is upset with Gio here, since… I also didn’t follow what was going on there.

And for seeing her anger, the Rocket nodded, accepting the unspoken rebuke.

“I believe we all need a moment as this isn’t going to be a simple drop off the photos and leave session that I thought it was going to be.” Giovanni offered, his tone nearly gentle.

“You’re being considerate.” Green managed a wobbly laugh, “No one’s going to believe that.”

Honey, that’s not the only thing that you shouldn’t believe about this guy, but let’s not even get into that.

“I’ll abstain from any obvious charity,” Giovanni promised, lips quirking, and then he was heading outside to recall his bird, making himself an utter liar. Reaching down, pulling up a few pictures, she smiled, nearly laughed. Silver had gotten Sneasel to scratch out a few swears on the walls like he promised.

Silver just hadn’t gotten Sneasel to spell the curses right. “Fock”, indeed. When Giovanni stepped back in a little later she nestled between both her parents, pointing out the swears Sneasel’d scratched into the walls to her parents. Explaining how she’d tried to get Jiggly to sing pop tunes into the vents at random times because Mask hated those. And how Silver was trying to make icicles that’d fall when someone entered through his cell’s front door because, why not?

Well I’d suppose that’d explain why Silver and Green are still semi-functioning after that whole ordeal. They definitely didn’t take their captivity lying down. Or at least not all of it.

When Giovanni came back in she looked up and dug out her phone.

“I turned off the password lock for my voicemail for five minutes.”

When the Rocket moved to listen right there she huffed at him, glaring.

“Taking phone calls in the living room is rude.” She quoted Mum and Mum huffed a nervous laugh, meaning to deflect, surely.

“I think,” Giovanni hummed. “That I’ll take five minutes to fetch my hat and listen to what needs to be listened to. But when I get back, I will have questions.”

Green, you do not want this man out of your sight. Let him listen in someplace you can see him.

“Timers on the corner of the screen and it’s going to auto turn off when it gets to the end. Altered Parental controls. And I set it to start when you left the room.” Green nearly sang up at him.

And of course, Giovanni had to look down at it and confirm, his glare up at her was more heartfelt than his previous malice towards her parents. And between the shadows of wings, that he’d caused the darken her windows, and the disaster at Silph… She held her ground, smiling up at him. Because she’d be damned before she flinched at him.

Because he’d brought a bird, so whatever she did in retaliation was more than deserved because he brought a Mew-blasted bird.

“I will be back in two minutes.” He warmed, all softness gone. “Then we’ll talk.”

I have exactly zero reason to believe that any of this will end well. ^^;

Giving him all the attention Giovanni deserved, which was none at all, Green flipped through a few photos. Sorting them in whimsical patterns. Finding another familiar one, she pulled it up, showing it to her parents, smile tight and twisted.

"This was the mess hall."

The picture was just an empty cavern, roof crushingly close, a pair of iced-down tables, metallic and glinting under its crust of ice. An adult sitting at it would have to crunch down to get around, but then the Mask's soldiers had been children, and not too horribly tall, even now. And though they didn't ask, just looked on in shocked horror, Green carried on like her parents had asked her a question she'd wanted them to ask.

Green: “... In retrospect, I probably should’ve just asked Giovanni to mail these to a PO box, but still feels good to know that I’m getting vindicated here.” ^^;

"We'd sit in groups, by height, so me and Silver sat closest because we were shortest, in the back. The biggest kids ate first and ate the most, and there were only so many plates and cups and they got passed down. Mask made them start sharing when Silver and me got sick from not eating enough. Passed out in on a mission, we were both in Brian's room for half a day for that... Then Karen and Will got put in Brian's room for a week once after Mask realized what was going on..."

-blinks-

Wait, that’s the ending? Since that… certainly feels abrupt.

Alright, for my overall thoughts:

It’s an interesting glimpse into your characters as you can just see Green’s parents react to finding out that their daughter’s nightmares she kept going on about were more than delusions and fantasies. I was fully expecting the shoe to drop with Giovanni here, but… I suppose that’s a story for another day.

As for things I had an issue with, there’s a lot of weird phrasing quirks here or there that sounded unnatural when read out loud. If you’re not already doing it and fluent in spoken English, I recommend that one of your proofreading passes prior to publishing be done just reading your text back to yourself since it’ll help you notice sentences that don’t sound natural in prose. There’s also some issues stemming from underdescription in a few parts, such as the bit where Green goes to get her Pokémon that feels kinda like she’s teleporting around since she’s not firmly established as heading for her room prior to that flashback sequence she goes into.

Also, I get that this is part 1 of 2 of a broader thing going on, but I also thought that you probably would’ve been better off putting in a conventional ending and treating it like a scene break since the existing ending… basically feels like you wrote everything up on a piece of paper, tore the bottom half off, and then published whatever was on the top half. Like I get that it’s a practice that sometimes works in television or the like, but it doesn’t really translate to written works.

I’ll be shooting to get in a review of Chapter 3 sometime before the end of Review Blitz, since I suspect that Chapter 3 is more or less an immediate continuation of what’s going on in this one and… the ending was more than a little abrupt there. Probably a sign that I need to see Chapter 3 in order to have something approaching closure to this one. ^^;

This was admittedly a more critical review than I was hoping to put together, but I hope it helps you with your story, @K_S and I hope that this feedback was helpful for you and your future endeavors.

 

[K_S]

Silvia and Green

The Heist: part 2, Closing the gap

As Silver would point out… the most important part of planning the heist, is getting to the location and planning an in and an out. Otherwise plots were just dreams. Loot not looted didn’t leave anything for them to sell for food, water, or blankets. It was only the stuff they could get to, and carry out, that meant anything.

For the record, Green could say that Giovanni’s wet blanket trait was watered down in Silver, thank goodness for small blessings, and if Silver’s mum was still alive Green owed her a lot for that

Rain made Green a bit melancholy and winter could turn her downright depressive. Luckily Sevii wasn’t inclined to too much of either, but today was definitely in the gloomy rain category, and while Green couldn’t twist it to be the Rocket’s fault, it was kinda his fault she was out in it. In a car mind, but still, it was meowth and growlithe’ing outside. The sky was shedding more tears than that angsty girl in the sparkling vampire novel Mum’d tried to get her to read to fit in and-

And that probably wasn’t the best thing to dwell on right before a heist.

So Green turned her inclination to mope to other subjects.

Like how she could have twisted the knife, as they drove. She drummed her feet against the back of the Rocket’s seat, and plotted a few scenarios in her head.

“Hey have I ever told you about that time in Silph, when Rocket was running around killing people and holding them hostage, I helped. Dropped a building on the Boss of Team Rocket and-“

That opening needed work, and yeah… Giovanni’d of thrown her out of the moving car if she went that angle.

Plans of “cheerfully” rattling off some fact to make Giovanni look bad to the Mayor, or just leaving hints that lead Silvia to dig and find certain events all on her own were major temptations.

Technically it wouldn’t be a breach in her contract, but when weighing the consequences of her idle malice… she couldn’t. Mainly because Green couldn’t read Giovanni, even when she sunk the new horrid depth of comparing father to son. Silver’d clearly inherited his mother’s physic, and because of that the red head’s reactions and expressions didn’t quite mesh to the Rocket’s…

And there was that fun fact of separated for more of their lives than living together to take into account… It’d be like someone comparing her to Mum and.. nope, not thinking about it.

Giovanni’s “good” genes couldn’t be completely recessive; if they had been Mask wouldn’t have taken Silver, unless Silver’s Mom was somehow a better trainer than his Dad?

And that thought, that was its own tangle she didn’t want to think about, Mask or Silver’s Mom, even though Silver’s asked her to.

Between those two wonderful options, it was safer to dwell on Mask.

So as they drove along the back of an off-black highway, the sky a slate grey dome as far as one could see, the natural dullness made the cityscape blur into sky, Green sulked. Since there wasn’t much traffic the road blurred into sky, sky blurred into scenery, making the world feel unreal.

In front of her, the adults were indulging a quick chat. A pre-heist checklist that should have been handled before they set out. It hadn’t started that way, meandering from how people couldn’t drive in the rain, then Silvia had realized, well oops she needed such and such… And Giovanni hummed, considering that there was something of use in his hotel room…

So a detour was declared. They hit downtown, the courthouse and political buildings were nearly side by side, as was Sevii’s jail, which was stupid. Green’d shaken off her gloom to point out how unbelievably stupid having jail right there was and the Mayor had laughed.

“Sweetheart if the budget was better I’d move them in a heartbeat, but I had to pick between the jail and improving the hospital and that was a no-brainer.”

Green’s look probably said that the move was brainless, and the mayor rolled her eyes.

“I know whose vote I’m not getting… Look… Green, I’m an adult. I do a dangerous job. Not police-level dangerous but… I knew it was unsafe when I took office and me moving people who might hurt me a few blocks, miles, whatever to make me a little bit safer isn’t that important. It’s a number game. Am I important, yes, am I as important as all the people getting treatment in the new wing and outreach facility on the island’s edge, no, I’m not. So the hospital gets the money and that’s that.”

And… that type of thinking was… it was Yellow thinking, it was Silver thinking. It was antithetical to Mask, who’d made it all about him and his precious widdle lapy’s. The man who’d ruined her life and so many others, endings lives, all because he couldn’t let go of a pet.

And it was different from Green, who was a hair nicer than Mask, going out of her way to help people she liked, like Silver, and Yellow, and not really caring about anyone else.

“Alright back there?”

Huffing a sigh, Green slumped against the car seat and mumbled. “Working on it. I just hate the rain.”

“It’ll clear up,”

They swung into a parking spot, Giovanni glancing at the jail then finding something else to look at outside. Then he jolted out of whatever his thoughts were, dodging Silvia reaching around him to dig out a small, chic, umbrella she kept in the grove of the passenger seat.

“I have one…” The Rocket snapped, having been poked, jostled, and reached around several times in the mayor’s efforts to get her things and not liking the experience at all.

“Yes, and I’m sure the funeral home you bought it from would love to have it back.”

Green chewed on her lip, to keep from laughing rather than crying this time.

Because seriously if this was what Giovanni dated, what the heck had Silver’s Mum been like?

“I’ll be back in a few… We’ll hit your place next Gianni.”

She smiled then, confident he was mollified. Green wish she shared that confidence. Then the woman tipping the umbrella up and out, she flicked her wrist and the device unflurried. At first glance Green thought it was white, but the water brought the subtle contrasts out and showed it to be a pink so pale it only seemed white. Like the farthest edge of a cherry petal, and was textured to resemble a pile of them, if spied from up high.

“You need to ah… come along, Green?”

Reading the lines between that, Green shook her head and managed something like a smile for the woman, and a wave, and then it was two again.

Rubbing his shoulder, where he’d been jabbed hard by the umbrella’s tip, the Rocket snarled under his breath.

“Women and their god-damned things.”

So said Mr. I need to get stuff before we go. Pointing out the obvious would be suicide, so Green didn’t, just unhookd her seatbelt and flopped on her side. Besides her, the box of joltick pokeballs rattled, but nothing opened. She wasn’t dumb to flop on them after all.

Supposedly melodrama was a thing teenage girls did. Why she didn’t get, but flopping was one of the few “normal” things she’d done after say… a stressful day at school, or after a rough day at the selling stalls. The sprawl felt more comfortable than sitting stiffly for however long they’d been driving, from the Mayor’s home to her office to wherever they were going next…

Plucking out a ‘tic’s pokeball she rolled it over her fingers, trying to get a good rhythm going and make it look like it disappeared appearing in one hand then the next. Without a screen or long sleeves, the trick was pretty obvious, but the practice wasn’t bad and kept her hands warm as Silvia hadn’t left the keys in the ignition, so the heat was dying down.

And the angle made things tricky.

“Stuff’s easier to swipe if you have a purse.” Green noted, tongue sticking out because it helped her think. “You don’t see me shoving things down my pants to hide the goods and make a getaway.”

The sound that came from Giovanni might have been a snort of amusement, not looking at the man, Green wasn’t even going to guess.

She went from rolling it in her hands to tossing the pokeball to herself, it was one of the Mayors, so Green couldn’t accidentally open it, making the juggling more than safe.

Staring at the roof of the car, Green decided, screw it, and mumbled.

“Silver’s been asking me about things I can’t answer. Not like… you know regular things… like the difference between boys and girls.”

Because seriously Oak and Red’s folks had been really worried about them not knowing and then horrified about them knowing too much. There’d been no way to win there. And the weird stuff they dug into after. No amount of shock dodging had dissuaded them, and she wasn’t having that conversation with Giovanni, ever.

She’d got to Mask first.

“He’s asking about his Mum, but in a Silver way. Like asking me about mine, then some on the TV, and the other peoples at school and I could answer that… but, he finally got to the point and asked me about his… your…”

Green waved the hand holding the pokeball, because, oh Arceus, what if Silver was like a product of a one-night stand or something? She didn’t want to explain that to Silver. Green’s face was turning red and she was squirming, because, ew ew ew… bad brain.

Oh, why had she opened her mouth? Why hadn’t she said no to Silver? She whimpered the last, and there was a creek. Giovanni had turned about, studying her with black eyes and a blank expression, lips pressed into a thin line.

“You really can’t say no to him, can you?”

Oh, thank goodness. Evasions. That meant Green didn’t have to even hint to Silver this conversation had ever happened because she had no information to give.. There was a Mew! Well, she knew there was a Mew Two, so Mew seemed rather obvious, still, Mew was merciful!

“While I’d much prefer to have this conversation with him face to face I assume not doing so would lead to him thinking I was holding it over his head. Withholding the data to prematurely provoke him into a face-to-face meeting?”

Mew, Green decided, was a stunted son of a braindead sneasel, and she was going to find him, and kick him for letting people think he was merciful.

Because this, this was not mercy anything.

“I’m going to retain nothing you say to me.” Green creaked out, a pathetic last defense they both knew was a stinking lie.

“If you were less of a backstabbing manipulative… child… I would be content to dictate something into your phone and trust you to forward it. As we both know what you are I’m not going to pass you such obvious blackmail material.”

Silence, after a while Green tossed the pokeball into its box, looked about, and though there was very little to look at, inside or out. Still, it was better than the placid adult look Giovanni was pinning on her.

“No sass, nothing smart to say?”

Nope, Green had nothing. She was just about to risk going outside, saying she had to “go”, when the front doors of the mayor’s office opened, and the woman was coming towards them, off pink umbrella in hand.

“Has he asked anything… specific.”

If she’d loved him, if he’d ever been loved, you know, the easy questions.

Still Green thought she might go full-blown crying if she said that. Grey rainy days just did that to her. Where birds made her remember the fear of her abduction, rain, and snow, specifically grey days with rain and snow, made her remember everything she’d lost. It’d snowed during her unwilling flight to Mount Mortar, and Ho-oh’s wings had turned the air around her into a steamy muck of a rainfall.

So of course, rain and birds and everything made her brain a mess, and her moods a morass, and it was going to be one of those days.

“Um… he might… we… Me and Yelllow, last year, well we don’t know his birthday or anything so we just do a party around the time when we got out… anyways, we wanted to get him something about her because he’d started doing his “hint hint” questions back then, even if it was just a name… Maybe just the name.” Green amended, with a swallow. “Because Sil’s such a dork he likes looking things up. But we couldn’t find her, so we got him some bitter candy from Hoenn since he doesn’t like sweet things. Which was lame…”

The door clicked open and the mayor slipped in, a wrapped bundle of something in hand. She set those in the thin space between her and Giovanni, flicking her concerned eyes from man and child.

“Everything alright in here?”

“Fine.” Green sniffled.

Clearing his throat, looking ahead and at nothing all at once, the Rocket swallowed, heavily. “December twenty-fourth.”

“What?” Green croaked.

“My son’s birthday is December twenty-fourth.”

Silence, Green nodded, and thinking maybe it wasn’t seen, she cleared her throat. “Yeah, I’ll tell him.”

Then, perhaps reminded, about being good and fair by the mayor herself, for her just being there, Green managed to continue. Though her throat was tight and each word burned.

“We think got out in August. It was the fifteenth when we got… I don’t know how long… Silver was sick… and I wasn’t much better. Days weren’t important, just hiding from Karen’s houndoom, and trying to remember the right way. I… I remember reading GoldenRod had a hospital, a sciencey one. I wanted to get us there just in case he got… worse.”

A flick of the car key and the car both warming up, literally, the Mayor, had turned on the heat. Green managed to get up to sitting and slung the belt on, suddenly wishing they didn’t have to go today but sure there weren’t going to be any other chances.

Green was on a timeline here, which meant like it or not she had work to do.

“Green we, you, don’t have to do anything,” Silvia spoke up. “Not today, not tomorrow, you’ve got a week or more, this can wait if you’re having a bad day.”

No, it really couldn’t. But she couldn’t explain it in a way the mayor would get.

“It’s uh better to do things than do nothing.. you know? Better to keep busy?” Green clearer her throat. “and climbing up a building to break-in in the rain, that’s gonna keep me super busy, I won’t be able to.. ah… think about anything else, and that’s good. It’s the best thing to do.”

It wasn’t even a lie.

“If you say so…” A pointed look was cast at Green’s “sponsor”, one that Giovanni seemed content to ignore, watching the road right now.

“To answer your earlier question,” the car pulled back, Silvia was getting the show on the road, small mercies. “Grace Mirrin Evens was Silver’s mother’s maiden name. You won’t find anything about her after because I abused a loophole in Kantoian privacy laws that prohibits gossip pieces on celebrities, of… specific topics. Her being married to me, a gym leader, granted her enough political clout to invoke those protections. And,” The Rocket’s lips quirked. “Grace was cunning enough not to do anything in public. She basically became a non-entity after our union.”

“But from before?”

“It will be difficult, but there is information. I had her social media pages purged after her passing, it felt crass to leave anything up.. But there are sources available if you, or Silver, decide to dig.” Turning so he was facing Silvia, the Rocket added. “We’ll need to make a right on Shoal and 15th.”

“Living in the biggest hotel in Sevii are we?” Silvia was string to make this normal, and Green twisted a tired smile at the woman in thanks.

“It’s the only facility with enough room and resources to host my team,” twisting, just enough their gaze could lock, the Rocket spoke again. Calling her name.

The girl perked up, or tried, she managed attentive, so win, sorta.

“If either you or Silver find anything about any living members of Grace’s family, I would strongly suggest you do not establish contact unless I am physically present. They, work with a similar methodology as your biological family did. And they have fewer scruples about hurting children to get what they want.”

Green chewed on that bit of news, and her lip, because how was she going to break that to Silver? Yeah, I spoke to your Dad and he said you might have family in the same town you’re in, but they’re crazier than mine… So don’t get in grabbing range…

“You’re not just… gunna order me to order him to stay away, or order me to keep my mouth shut?“

“Why waste my breath?”

Ung Green considered finagling her phone, texting Silver, explaining. But with how her throat burned and her eyes itched, she wasn’t going to be able to sound normal. Silver’d cotton on in a heartbeat. If she texted it’d be even odds that Silver would call back. Once he knew she knew something about his Mum, never mind Giovanni was there, Silver was stubborn like that.

And desperate to know there was someone living that could love him, someone with no horrible history or strings attached.

And she wished he’d just get it. That it was her, and Yellow, and that was it. But Silver wouldn’t be Silver without all that stubborn attached, and Green loved him for it, and hated that he’d only wound up hurt in the end.

The car slid to a stop, Silvia cleared her throat.

“We’re here, and if you need some time… for whatever, I can go up with Giovanni.”

And while kind, Green shook her head.

“After the job.”

It was better to tend to anything… emotional… after a job. Experience had taught her that the hard way.

XXX

Giovanni was back in less than five minutes, and seriously if he’d gone to just change, and they were alone, she’d of tried to tear into him. Because there was a time and place to be a clothes ponyta, and unless it was for a disguise, now wasn’t the time. Green’d been mad, one hair from losing it, until she’d gotten a good look at his get-up as he was settling back in the car.

Because he was dressed in the same get-up he’d worn to Silph with two new additions. A bulletproof vest, the type that was slid under his dress shirt but was recognizable if you knew what you were looking for, and a gun, that was clipped openly to his belt.

The gun was definitely new... and while the sight of it shut Green up, the same was not for the good Mayor.

“I’ve filled out all the appropriate permits and it's legal, Silvia, let it drop.” Giovanni sighed.

“You’re taking a loaded weapon…”

They were inching out of the downtown, all the lights were red, it figured.

“-It’d do me little good to leave the bullets in my hotel room.”

And if that was the Rocket turning on the charm by being funny Green had to wonder how he managed to get Silver’s mom to be with him long enough to have Silver.

Because that was just bad.

“A loaded gun Gio-”

Green considered for one mad moment to grab the joltick box and flip it upside down. Releasing of a dozen electric ticks in an electric car would do wonders. On the pro side it’d stop the fight, on the con side it’d gut the car, and then Giovanni would gut her. Still, it was an idea.

Giovanni tolerated the dressing down for far longer than Green thought he would, before cutting a hand through the air and that shut Silvia up and made Green twiddle with the lock. It was childproofed and locked, well if worse came to worse the window was an option…

Because Giovanni dropped his charm, dropped his civility, and was leveling pure Silph tones, right then at Sevii’s mayor.

“I am a Kantoian-Italian man going into an institute ran by Kalosians. After Kanto butchered Kalos in the last war. A war I served in. These people have obviously allied with Flare. Flare, has ties with the Kalos military, and a history of murdering anyone of Italian descent they can get their hands on. All to get to a hypothetical Rocket Boss who might or might not be Italian.”

He barked a laugh, and it made Green’s skin crawl to hear it.

“And you’re asking me to go in unarmed?”

Silvia opened her mouth, closed it, then looked from the Rocket to Green, then back again, they were leaving the city behind them, in a bit there’d be nothing but road and man-made wasteland on either side.

“Silvia,” the man’s tone softened out of Rocket inflections and into a pitch Green had heard directed at Silver, once. During that offer in far-flung Ilex. “If the Flare Cell is at this plant, we may very well be running for our lives. Because if it is Flare, they’ll have ‘mon, a small army, and no stamped piece of paper is going to get them to leave...”

And Green wasn’t going to say a word, saving the mayor from herself was not part of Green’s paycheck, and Saving Sevii from Giovanni wasn’t going to be happening. She’d let Red try if he wanted to but Green was going to be gone and nothing was going to make her look back.

It didn’t make her feel any less bad for the mayor, it just wasn’t enough to get her to do something about it.

Kicking her feet, tapping a one-two bet against the Rocket’s seat without thinking about it, until he turned to glare at her. Green stopped then and saw the mayor stealing glances at her when driving permitted.

Finally, just sick of everything, Green huffed at the woman.

“Alright since we’re going to spend the whole car ride screaming at each other… What’s your problem with me, lady?”

“I’m wrestling with the moral issues of taking a minor, or even a guest, with me to something that could be much more dangerous than I imagined.”

“I doubt your police force is less corrupt than the present company.”

Green almost smirked at that, if the police were a quarter as corrupt as Giovanni that’d still be pretty bad. Three guaranteed moles, two backstabs, one act of arson, and a partridge in a pear tree...

But if she laughed she’d have to explain the joke, and she kinda couldn’t, and she couldn’t have the giggles, that’d look bad too.

“What he said.” Green agreed, with a smirk. “Look, what would it take, for me to say or do that’ll make you stop seeing “a little girl”? I mean, you know about Mask, a little, you know I raised Silver, what else do I have to do or be to make you not worry about my part in it?”

“It’s a little hard not to worry, probable terrorists, you know.”

And wow, that was dry. Near Silver levels of dry. And to that bit of familiarity, Green’s smirk twisted into a real smile. And she had an idea, a horrible, going to get maimed later, level of bad, “bad idea”. But it was something, and she picked up a joltick pokeball, rolling it over on her fingers, the bumps of the road adding an edge of challenge to her game.

Terrorists were the problem? Well, Green knew a few stories about terrorists and how to work around them. After all, she’d ran circles around Rocket, Mask, the League… she had a lot of experience.

But first, she’d need permission, Giovanni’s permission, to drag a hypothetical version of him through the mud.

The gas station on the side of the road, with a familiar sign above it declaring it partnered with an Alolan Vulpix Queen attached made Green’s smile widen.

Might as well get two birds with one stone, after all the world could do with less birds.

Effecting a squirm, and vulpix eyes, Green faked a blush, because why not lay it on extra thick?

“Hey um… could we, ah pull over? At the station?”

Might as well get a treat out of this while she was at it.

 

[kyeugh]

i'm deeply sorry for how belated this review is; there's no excuse for it, but i hope you'll enjoy this review nonetheless. i've read chapters 1-3, which i hope helps somewhat.

overall, i enjoyed reading this. your characters are so thoughtfully crafted and distinct, and your writing really shines in their interactions, from the dialogue to the tangential thoughts to the body language. every interaction bleeds so much character in every word and action, and it really pulled me in. there is so much history, written out and implied, and in general with this story (but especially through the dialogue) you get a sense of a very large and complex world filled with well-considered relationships.

i enjoyed giovanni's depiction here in particular. there is such a wide range of interpretations to run with for this character, and all of them have their place, but i've always been partial to the chillingly deliberate and calculating giovanni, and you write him beautifully here. his mind is running a mile a minute and it doesn't seem like anything slips past him. he oozes charisma and control. i have to admit there were parts where i was a bit lost in his reflections—i haven't read the manga this story is based on, so i'm guessing there's a lot of context i'm just not privy to. even so, i did find some of the reflections meandering at points; giovanni's perspective in particular has quite lengthy sequences of thought. regardless, it was still possible for me to follow along with this story, and the hints at a larger world were intriguing if anything.

there were quite a few mechanical lapses in this story and a handful of typo as well. i point out a few below, but omitted most. a second set of eyes before publishing wouldn't hurt this story.

i was really curious about green's backstory and her relationship with silver. seems like some seriously messed up stuff happened to them under pryce. i wonder if the overly-controlling parents she's living with now are her biological parents, or if she was placed with a new family after being rescued? are they surveiling her like this because they're traumatized by what happened too, or are they unaware of her past and just controlling like that? definitely some questions raised. i wonder if these are contextual to the manga too; definitely curious about the series now.

small thing, but i appreciated your depictions of pokémon a lot. green's interaction with the machamp was pretty great. would love to see more of that; your fluff is pretty fun.

the subject matter here is a little heavy here, so i'm uncertain if i'll return to this story in particular, but it was a fine introduction to your writing and i may be checking out something else of yours soon, especially if it's based on something other than the manga as i'm not very familiar—let me know if you have any recs! sorry again for the lateness of this review, and thanks for sharing this story.

Spoiler: line comments

One blistering ultimatum, which boiled down to him giving them twenty minutes to coral and dispose of

* corral

Obviously adlibbed, the fan and most of the additives to the Roombas were low quality.

it rang a little funny to me to use adlibbed in this way twice so close together. i think the device is indeed obviously improvised so you could probably cut this second usage entirely.

There’d also been a few fine black hairs of a dark type… The crisp NeverMelt about the follicles marked the fur as part of the Sneasel line

pretty cool detail!

When no feel-good periodical piece popped up, about reunions and heroics, he saluted the girl’s cunning and consulted quieter avenues.

i found this kind of hard to follow. who is the girl? is she responsible for the absence of feel-good periodicals?

a perfectly reasonable hostage situation

many such cases!

shaking the light of Celebi’s healing from his eyes

i liked this imagery.

dex’

i think you want this apostrophe in the beginning if at all.

“Definitely shiny. Snea’d have a field day, she liked to pop Silver’s phone in her mouth when if shined, we had to fuss with all the settings so it wouldn’t… so she wouldn’t...”

really cute detail.

She guilds his hands so the things flat on the floor, wheels down, and she guilds his hands while Mask watches.

i think you meant "guides" here?

Then, putting a bright-colored block something too young for someone his age he reaches out…

i couldn't follow this sentence at all.

There were more, and they were spread wider, taller, machamp and ‘kaun’s doing most of the lifting

not sure what a 'kaun is.

“Silver’s prettier makes better jewelry.”

missing some punctuation here.

like a nest of joltiks smelling a ten pack of batteries

love it.

like the Persian he was occasionally depicted on the media

kind of surprising to me that he's cartoonified as an animal in the media but also most people don't know what he looks like.

Giovanni’d of killed them for the offense

i think you want "have" instead of "of" here, although i think that reads a little murkey. "Giovanni would've killed them" is better.

Do no call, no text, tracked. And a bit redundant had been the ad clipped and folded inside the crossword. A pseudo mp3 player with a rather… fetching… flower pattern that did little to hide the recording apparatus at its center. Still, despite the redundancy, knowing how was of some use, so he’d not reprimand Green for it later down the line.

i thought this coding was neat and well-written.

 

[K_S]

Review reply (appologies this is going to be done on cell phone so expect a slew of typos)

No worries on how long it took. Lifes been exciting a lot on my end so i definitly get not being able to be prompt on anything... Thanks for going a bit deeper in then most of my readers.

Well i am glad the characters were such a draw.

And coniving gio is very much manga canon and a treat to try to tackle. Glad you liked my efforts.

Ah yes... Mechanical snafus... The light of my existance...

In all honesty i may hunt down a beta once i get this tale written out to the lysandre vs giovanni scene but thats pretty far afield. And considering my circumstances probably wont even be on the table until next year. but i will happily incorperate what errors you caught and drag everything through grammerly once i get the time to.

So... Short version. Thanks for bringing these errors to my attention.

Hm so greens back story... Told out in bit and pieces is a bit spoilery but if you dont mind a bit of a read...

Spoiler: Greens manga background and "roosts" alterations to it.

So back about 10 years ago legends oh-ho and lugia rampaged through kanto. Somehow pryce had gotten a hold of thier feathers and used them to mindcontrol the birds. The legends were used to kidnap children throughout the region and two of the victims were gio's son silver and green.

These children were basically conscripted as child soldiers and made to be pryces slaves/assassins/spies. Pryce justified his abduction of silver saying the kid (a 2 yrs old incanon i aged him up to 4 in this tale) had his fathers malice and talents and therefore deserved what happened to him.

Green was just colateral... And heavily hinted to be forced to keep the too young silver alive or else...

Silver per the experience and his age suffered total amnesia and was pushed back to an even younger age mentally and is royally messed up. The boy can not socialize even as a near adult and his morals are... Squirrly on a good day. Kids half feral.

Greens got full blown parentification, kleptomania, and bird phobia among other issues in her life as a result of pryce/mask of ices mind games.

Both bond despite horrid experiences and encouragment not to bond... Aka punishments for basic socialization... Greens goal is to get her and silver home asap... She runs to pallet and viridian as soon as she gets them out and when both are duds green and silver split up as the mask and his goons are looking for them as a team. This throws them off enough that Green is free to start stealing and conning her way into a team/survival and forwarding half her gains to silver as she tries to track down her family under the guise of a mon journey.

She tangles with oak after stealing her squirtle because shes scared the common mon shes got wont be enough to save her if mask comes calling. Oaks ah... Retaliation which is detailed later in this fic is a huge spring board as to why many people consider manga oak a jerk....to put it lightly... And greens literally blackmailed into working with the good.guys as part of oaks ultimatum.

As for greens placement... These are her biological folks. It gets expanded and reinforced in the prequil "she sells sea shells" and in later chapters of roost... (Also theres no one in the world she'd call mum or da... Just saying) But greens folks coped with her abduction by boarding the denial train and not looking back.

Part of my biasis for greens folks reaction for this story is actually rooted in canon.

Green calls them right before a huge battle telling them shes alive ect and thier reaction really comes across as "be home by dinner"and "come back when youve wrapped everything up" vibes...

Which seems borderline insane... I mean i guess different moral values since free ranging children are a thing in the mon verse and what not... but still.

Gios reaction when silver is brought to his attention is to start tearing the region down the the bed rock and start shaking it looking for his kid. Also he does try to off lance and pryce because they hurt his kid... He about faces on his murder plans since lance and pryce are wearing plot armor.... and then canon takes a flaming leap off of sanity land... But thats mho and honestly this fics a fond "poke holes in the plot holes then apply fixing/stucko as needed" sort of affair...

Hmm theres some cuteness when she trains her team in the beach after the machamp scene... And her and gios persian hit off once shes scrapped off the floor post pouncing...

Honestly the longer away from home she is the more time she gets to have bonding moments with mon... Hence more trainer+mon fluff is sprinkled further ahead.

Detailed line by line replies

When no feel-good periodical piece popped up, about reunions and heroics, he saluted the girl’s cunning and consulted quieter avenues.

i found this kind of hard to follow. who is the girl? is she responsible for the absence of feel-good periodicals?

So what gios noting is that the girl/green had made her homecoming very quiet. Aka no feel good periodicals/news articles about the lost kid from viridian reuniting... Ect. Hes noticing how smart that was and is amused all at once.

'kauns an abreviation of kangaskaun... I'd just used kanga' s a short cut and didnt want to repeat so i cut things up a different way.

like the Persian he was occasionally depicted on the media

kind of surprising to me that he's cartoonified as an animal in the media but also most people don't know what he looks like.

Actually he digs into this more in the last... Twoish chapters i have up and really explains in Transversal (another manga au) but he has an iron hard control on his depiction in media. Green learns about it when confessing that for silvers escape day (they treat it like his birthday making her and silver "twins/sibs" of a sort) she and yelliw tried to get some info on silvers mom but got blackwalled. Gio admits to having scrubbed everything online about grace (silvers mom) out, usingg a mix matchnof legalesse, surviving spouse privlages, and censorahop laws to pull off the erasure. He then yanked his info offline except a few professional bios/ leauge pages and definitly had his pictuers pulled to maintain privacy.

As the head of viridian co' aka his buisness/philanthropic front he is very well known. A celebrity even. And most media depictions of him being a fat cat are part racial slur part association with him strolling around with his killer kitty with his "public" team.

In the league after silvers abduction he went almost total deadbeat and the leagues so bleeding hard he wasnt often faced with challengers and faded out of that community and was all but forgotten. But the league isnt end all be all to the world and thats somethung green hasnt really wrapped her head around yet.

As for recs... Well ive a question before i toss out suggestions.

You mentioned that" heaviness" was an issue? Can you elaborate so i can comb through my stash of fics... Also if you come back to this one... Well i'd suggest skipping chapters 12 and 13.. Or juat drop me a line and i can outline them because i suspect the worst of it... Green discussing what happened under pryce might be the heaviest issue on the plate and she royally revisits those topics in that chapter and drops all her inner censors and weaponizes her abuse and silvers abuse against gio in a way that nearly makes the rocket lose his lunch.

Granted my guess can also be totally wrong.. So clarity would help.

 

[Sinderella]

Hey K_S! Happy Blitz and happy Catnip! I remember reading this a while back and had to re-skim the first chapter to understand the gist, so please bear with me going forward.

I'll begin with saying that I like the characterization of Green here. She really does come off as "childish" as intended (based on your a/n) so kudos there! I really did get the vibe that she was a young child, both from the way she interacted with her parents and from the way she seemed to be processing her situation. If I understand correctly, it seems like....she was held captive by the gym leader Pryce, who I guess was also a serial killer known for freezing his victims? That's a pretty insane thing to come back from and be so almost "nonchalant" about, but I also got some gist that she IS just a child and may just not be processing how intense it was? Water off a duck's back type things?

I was also into the characterization of Giovanni here. I don't know what his entire deal is (because I KNOW he's no father of the year), but the evident and even slightest concern he seems to have for Silver is intriguing. Whether it has to do with something purely transactional, or he actually is concerned about his son, who was also kidnapped, I suppose only time will tell.

I will preface this with an apology, as I did get pretty critical while reading this. My first concern isn't really with the writing or story itself, but your threadmark index. I started from the first post and just read downward, but it looks like your threadmarks are entirely out of order--the first post being links down in the index, for example--and it kind of confused me as to where I was meant to start reading. I'm not sure if this was intended or its just a me thing or something wrong with the forum itself, but it was a bit confusing in terms of where I was meant to be starting and continuing from, which leads me into my next concern.

With regards to what I had actually read, it felt like a lot of the info that was presented to me in this chapter was information that either should have been known previously or was presented previously (thus leaving me wondering if I'd even started in the correct place). Like, the information around who the "Mask" or "Brown" was was presented in the exposition as things that were already discussed before. If so, and I began at the wrong point, then I apologize. If not, and this is the first time presenting this stuff to the reader, then I would recommend you take a look at the way you introduce new information to a reader. It seems like, at one point in the chapter, you had Green retreat to her room to get her phone, and had her think about this horrific thing that happened to her, and the exposition felt like it was thrown at me. Like, first we're talking about Giovanni looking for Silver, but now we've pivoted into "oh by the way, Green and Silver were held captive by Pryce and nearly killed in the process." That's a very jarring thing to introduce to a story, and if that's what you want the focus of the chapter to be, then I would suggest revisiting edits on this chapter to find ways to ensure that it is indeed the focus. This felt like it was supposed to be sort of the main issue of the overall plot, aside from Giovanni looking for Silver, so I really think you would benefit from putting more focus on it throughout the whole chapter. It's a very intriguing concept!

Getting more technical, your prose generally feels a little choppy. I had a hard time getting a reading rhythm because it felt like you were jumping around at certain points, and I had a difficult time rooting myself in the scene at hand. In general, it seemed like you tried to get a little "fluffy" with your prose, and it ended up reading a little confusing in some places. My advice to you would be, as you're writing, to focus on writing what is going to propel your story forward. If it's something that doesn't add to the immediate scene at hand, or at least provide some context, you should probably forego it. Simplicity is usually best.

Further line-specific critiques can be found below:

Spoiler: Line-by-Lines

Line-by-Lines

Daddy’d

Mum’d

I noticed you used the "'d" contraction with proper nouns a lot throughout this chapter. While it's not technically wrong, for a formality sake, I would suggest just writing "Daddy had" going forward.

and since it was election season politicians were to be made fun of too.

Comma needed between bolded.

Dad found her a new Johotian soap for her to while the late hours when she had insomnia or nightmares.

I reread this sentence a few times but couldn't understand what it was trying to say, so I think that you're missing some words around "while"?

the rap on the front door near made Green hop

"Nearly"

just to make sure Da heard, and if their guest did, all the better. “It’s proba’ly a ‘marketer Da!’

This was a really jarring proper noun switch, and I noticed you did it a few times throughout. We went from "Daddy" to "Da" (both with and without a ') and from Mum to Mama and back to Mum. For simplicity sake, I would suggest you pick one for each and stick with it.

Da’ glared at him expression stony.

Comma needed between bolded.

but I think you’ve at the wrong house.”

*you're

Hats were stored in your room,

Would change this to "in the bedrooms."

Never mind she wanted to set Nido on the old Psychic witch and tell Nido to roll over the woman twice

You don't need to use "Nido" twice here.

It was likely a signal and. And Green decided the dust mop bin was too good for Giovanni’s hat.

Bolded typo.

And if Green hadn’t known Silver as well as she did. Well, Silver had a funny way of letting his eyes crinkle right before he laughed, and Giovanni’s were doing that as he saw, and was perhaps amused by, her vindictive streak.

This was a strange bit of exposition. The beginning felt like an unfinished thought, causing it to lead awkwardly into the following one.

ecause while Giovanni wasn’t a litter of newborn meowth he was a hell of a lot better than a man who abducted kids

Comma needed between bolded.

Looing a bit more put together Green stole a moment to dab her face,

*Looking

“Sweaty, let me get your phone and I’ll play the message to Mr. Sakaki, shall I? Then you can go back to your room, and we’ll talk in the morning.”

Did you mean "Sweetie"?

between Da’ and the couches plush arm.

*couch's

So no one’d ask “or else” when the Mask got really nasty because Brian was “or else”.

Typically, when quoting within a quote, you use apostrophes (') instead of quotations (")

“Fock”, indeed.

Did you mean "Fuck"?

Again, apologies that this ended up being a little critical. I do enjoy the concept you're setting up here and hope my notes were at least a bit helpful. Good luck in all your future writing endeavors, and see you around!

 

[Tango]

Review of Roost Chapter 1

Hey K_S, at long last, I am here to deliver some much needed chapters for our review exchange! Thank you so much for your help this past year. With this and several more reviews I have planned for this week, I believe I will be caught up where I ought to be. Also, I'm trying to experiment with a quicker review style but I might go back to the old way if I like it better even though it takes longer to review that way.

Anyway, enjoy the review!

Roombas are the start of every madness.

I love how the first paragraph is a single line. Who wouldn't want to read the next line after reading a line like that?

Sound like someone got a little too excited with the Rocket Budget! 😅

Somehow you already worked "gyrations" into the story! *applause*

Yeah... good talent for team Rocket is hard to find.
I guess he threatened to kill them? I suppose that would be an effective motivator!
Rhydon seems imposing. Good! It would be rather silly if it wasn't.

"Sure it wasn’t rigged to blow, Giovanni handled the juvenile attempt at murder him personally." I think you meant to have the bold word here as "murdering".

Oh so someone was trying to axe him with Roombas? Flying drones with grenades attached probably would have done the job considering how far the Roombas got.

So the roombas were some sort of hodgepodge clepto Frankenstine creations? So weird! Interesting though!

If you slap them down though, they are just going to sink more... just saying.

Well Giovanni, sounds like you need to either exterminate the pest or recruit them.

Oh it sounds like his son then. I guess the joke is on him then since both his go-to options are now disabled!

Oh cool he mentioned the Sevii islands presumably!

"She also, he mused, finding Mary Azule, Greens mother's law firm, in five minutes, had been unable to encourage her parents to go into hiding." this sentence was difficult to read. I had to read it like 5 times before I understood it properly. Judging from the rest of your writing, I'm sure you could rework this to flow a bit easier, but if you want me to try to give an example, just let me know.

Well Green. I think Giovanni is going to be in touch soon. I hope the roomba prank was worth it.

So he is definitely looking for Silver and somehow I don't think he cares too much about how he gets that information from Green.

Wow he really put a lot of thought into when he called her. At least he is calling instead of sending Rockets after her. I can't blame her for not picking up if she is scared though. Still, I guess he does care about how he gets the information.

Ah she thought it was telemarketing. Ok she can't be blamed for not picking up OR for picking up then really.

"He hadn’t expected much from a child who had allied with other children to tear down a building in response to a perfectly reasonable hostage situation." I was thinking this might pack more of a punch if you changed "down a building" to "down an entire building" after all, it was the kids who were being unreasonable, not him!

Ok yeah he is being pretty chill about it considering who he is.
I mean, the jig is already up at this point. Hiding from the problem wasn't going to help her and unless she was willing to involve her parents, I can see why she would pick it up as crazy as it may sound.

"Letting Silver and Green be had been an attempt, roundabout mind, of reconciliation." mind seems odd here, but i suppose its sophisticated potentially unless roundabout mind is just total nonsense. I can't tell. I've never heard the expression. This is either great wording or bad wording. Not sure.

So if Green would have been willing to get a ride from Giovanni at that point, it would have made me wonder why she was afraid to talk to him but the roomba prank was still a good enough reason to be scared initially.

Well I guess Giovanni cares in his own way being willing do do whatever it took to get Silver to go with him.

Giovanni always did have a confidence about him and good control over his emotions. I like your portrayal of him so far.

Seems like reasonable reasons for Green to disassociate with the other dex holders.

Ooo Green is cheeky! lol!

What's a villain got to do to get some respect? Actually.... Green you might want to stop pushing the mob boss's buttons so much.

"Some bird of to scare her senseless, and dissuade her from running her mouth at him." Bold words look weird to me. I suspect this isn't how you meant to type this, but I'm not sure.

Hah! Uncle G. The way he complains about it says to me that he secretly doesn't mind it as much as he says on the surface.

Oh wow Chapter 1 done! Its intriguing so far. I'm looking forward to the next chapter!

 

[Tango]

Review of Roost Chapter 2 the visit

And I'm back again!

Ah this must have shifted to Green's perspective. I don't think she knows the word twilight, not that it is a very commonly used word.

I just realized I have no idea how old Green is. In my head I was thinking she was 16, but I don't think she is that old based on the first paragraph. Is she 10? 🤔

Aww sounds like Green has a decent mother. 🥰

"confirmed that Da’d turned the TV on." I think you meant this without the apostrophe? *Returned after reading later* Ok I am no longer confident in that since Da' appears in multiple spots, but sometimes with and without the apostrophe. Probably would be easier if it were all just replaced with dad and mom, but i think you were going for a particular feel here.

Interesting way to use TV to give some insight to what family life for Green is like.

Sometimes knowing something is coming just makes you react to it even more. I don't blame her for hopping.

I don't blame Green for accepting that her parents didn't believe her, but its unfortunate for the effect it had in pushing Silver away.

I can understand her motivation for wanting to dispel their illusions though.

So Green cares about Silver enough to team up with Giovanni to reach him faster. No mention of a possible crush, so I think she just has a big heart and to a likely bigger extent, doesn't understand how objectively bad of an idea involving Giovanni would be.

Her parents are essentially normal folk who don't know how to deal with crazy things. They show they care about her though, they just are too normal to be of real help to her given the ordeal she went through. Sad stuff.

Giovanni entering the house reminds me of a vampire. Trench coats are cool. You conveyed a ton of presence with minimal words here. Well done!

Haha! Then Green has to dismantle his presence with her very next line. You're characters are definitely charactering.

Green really likes to push the boundaries it seems. Yes lets play a prank on the mob boss's hat. Sounds reasonable. Then again, Giovanni isn't being nearly as menacing as he could be, so he just needs to accept it as part of the cost of "doing business" here.

Wow Green. Keep that up and uncle G is going to give you a spanking! *Imagines Giovanni suddenly has the ability to read minds and responds to her* "Tell me, Green. Do you like playing with fire?"

"perk up at words." Odd word play here to me. No clue if its intentional.

Ah, I like how you call it out that Green has never battled Giovanni. That adds to the overall intimidation factor. Nice!

Giovanni certainly seems better than Pryce. Agreed.

I like how swear words are only used sparingly. I think some fics just try to jam as many of them in as many places as possible... Still...GREEN! LANGUAGE!

Wow, so this is really highlighting the difference between a villain and a monster. Pryce is a monster. Giovanni is a villain. Honestly if there is a death penalty in Manga world, Pryce has his name written all over it.

Dang calling him Brown. Ok we get it! I'm ready to see Giovannis Rhydon rip Pryce to shreds now! Honestly, I think that might be pushing the boundaries of T for teen. I'm starting to wonder if I can really handle M rated fics now lol.... 😅

Poor Green! She really needs a hug. Maybe Uncle G will take pity on her and give her one to further his designs. She even goes through lengths to hide her tears afraid to show weakness.

"Which explained why Bro- Brian had gone to the cops." I feel like there is some context here that I am missing. *looks at it again* OH its NOT tying to say brother but brown! I'm guessing I'm not the only one who will make that mistake. Maybe add 1 more letter to it here?

Having a bird type fly about is nearly Mask-like in cruelty? Wait what??? I can only assume Green isn't thinking straight right now, because even with that, Giovanni seems worlds different than Pryce!

"So, Green could safely say, she hated Giovanni Sakkaki a whole lot." Not sure if Giovanni's last name was intentionally misspelled here or not.

I don't remember why Silver hates Professor Oak.

Green going over things with her parents is a good way of reminding or showing the readers what happened with her and Silver in the clutches of Mask. It also provides some additional insight into Giovanni. I feel like this all works very well for the overall narrative.

I still feel like Green and Giovanni will be relaxing their mutual animosity as time goes on.

Another good chapter! The soft moments of the characters are endearing too. I especially liked when her mother was worried about her footing while cleaning.

That completes my review for Chapter 2!

 

[Tango]

Review:
Green: Aftermath of the Visit and a Powerplay, RD Chapter 4

Alright time to jump in to the next review! I've got multiple in here this time! It was bothering me too much to do without line by line, so I went back to it.

Spoiler: Chapter 4

Ok so she has been grounded and is finding it boring. That means she has been grounded for some time already. So is this saying she has been grounded for the past 3 weeks or is it saying she has been grounded for some time and that the total length of being grounded will last 3 weeks?

I wonder what kinds of accusations were thrown about?

Ah looks like we are getting a flashback to what occurred! Good! I was very curious!

I don't like having to piece together who is talking from the context clues though.. I'm able to figure it out so far, but do you really want the reader to have to determine who is speaking as they read dialogue? If you prefer it that way, then ok, but if its not intentional I wanted to point it out. I think it might be something that is going to pop up very often though, so I'll try not to comment on this aspect of things again unless I find dialogue that I legitimately can't figure out who is speaking.

"clothes on her back, and food in her mouth she buried her trauma" I believe you meant to start a new sentence here after mouth with capitalizing She.

Gio is doing a good job of attacking in a way that makes it look like he is on Green's side. So good of a job that I would probably feel happy if I were Green right now.

Greens reaction to windows over her fear of birds is on point here.

Her mom thinks he isn't the Viridian Gym leader. I suppose that is a reasonable assumption even if it is wrong. Nice touch having her jump to a wrong conclusion even though you and the readers are well aware to the contrary. Helps her feel more real.

Cute how Green hugs Jiggly. It certainly seems like a great mon to hug!

Dancing Bees! Somehow this seems related to her reaching out to Gio but the method is going totally over my head if its meant to be able to be understood! Also, the macarena is now confirmed as something that exists in the fic!

Oh my word! They found a way to twist Gio into "not Gio" in their desperate attempt to maintain the overall delusion! What will it TAKE?! *thousand yard stare*

So she is saving newspaper clippings and finding Silver sightings and plans to mail them to Gio because it will possibly help Silver be found. Got it!

So Silver is winning battles and getting money that way. That makes a lot of sense why he can be on his own actually. I know its common in the Pokemon universe, but the depth of the characters sometimes makes it easy to forget that. Good detail to add!

I'm not sure why she is so confident that Gio would not know about newspaper clippings. He might not be reading through all the papers like Green does, but if he devoted a team of Rocket grunts to it, I bet he would be aware of it! 🤔

Wow, so she wants to toy with Gio by sending pics that aren't clear enough first. I know she likes messing with him, but doesn't she want to find Silver more? I think she is talking about sending pictures with her phone so I guess there wouldn't be a lag time like there would be if she sent pics by mail spaced a day apart or more. Ok I think this makes sense here. That I had to stop to think about it first might be an indication that being a little more overt about sending the pics with her phone might be useful here to future readers.

Ah she is worried about not being able to answer if Silver called. Excellent detail to include! I almost feel like I'm grounded along with her now!

Ah so her dad doesn't know what she is laughing at since the papers he gives her have all the funnies taken out, so her laughing while being grounded is bad and suspicious! They sure are going super hard core with this grounding! But I guess since they believe their own delusion, this is justified in their own minds...

Oh wow so I guess the power play was Gio acquiring her dad's company in the paper with a picture! LOL Its like if he were to use a huge light to project letters on the moon that read "Green's parents are delusional" lol.

So I'm trying not to smile at the end of the chapter but failing. This is going to be pretty funny with what happens with her dad!

Review:
Frank Azule: Powerplay fall out RD Chapter 5

Spoiler: Line by line reaction

Written because Gio can be an utter jerk when he wants to be. And right now he wants to be.

I'm already smiling and the chapter hasn't even started yet!

Frank Azule hated it when corporate did their rounds.

Very understandable!

Having to sit and listen while his supervisor drew close, voice pitched high and loud, it was an unspoken warning that any seen doing anything but vigorous typing would be drawn and quartered the second the big wigs departed…

That sounds pretty awful. I hope that isn't the norm for office jobs in general!

No pressure, none at all.

Don't mind me! I'm a good little cog in the machine, yes I am!

Closing his emails Frank flipped open some pages of code and pointedly hunched and tipped his chair so he’d looked utterly engrossed in his work. He opened a window under the page he was working, so his typing wouldn’t actually affect anything important on the screen, set it to slowly scroll up and down at random, and got to “work”. The code in front of him really needed about five minutes of touch-up before it got passed up; he’d planned it this way. He meant to make today an email day, turn down the overtime, and pick up Green after school. She was in trouble, yes, but still, she shouldn’t be alone.

The fact that he resorts to this kind of stuff says a lot about the work environment here I think.. yikes! This is what it takes to have enough time to catch up on work emails without overtime?

Not with that creep possibly lurking around town with his crazy talk about a Mask of Ice, and those obviously doctored photos…

And the delusion continues... honestly though in a normal world for a normal person, he would probably be right about everything lol...

But bloody corporate just had to make a hoopla and show off his department… Mew blast it, he’d wait for the Boss and his Corporate attachment to get out and ask his cubical mate if he’d take his hours. Perhaps he could sweeten the pot by giving Harold some credit for the code he was turning in.

I'm confused here. He wants to avoid corporate here, so he waits for them to leave the office when he would presumably be able to breathe and get his co-worker to cover for him only after corporate leaves?? Is he expecting them to go on a lunch break and he would leave while they are gone so they don't see him leave? 🤔

Consultation partner or hands-on assist, because if it was the latter Frank was going to have to alter some logs to make that story stick and accept a pay cut on his commission when all the paperwork was squared away.

For him to know so many ins and outs, I'm guessing he has been working for this company a long time!

“And this is IT, Mr. President Sakaki, Sir, where all the security happens! Think of it like… Ummm how do they phrase it in the league? It’s like our “glass wall”? Like your Rhydon. Big, all-encompassing, and meant to take hits. IT makes things to take the hits so the company, and of course our clients, and the goods, don’t have to worry…”

Well, it was nice while it lasted, Frank. 😅

…Sakaki?

Frank right now =

Shock ran down Frank’s back. He jolted from sitting to standing, popping out of his seat like a watchhog popping out of its den, scenting some predator.

Ok now I'm expecting him to sneak around the cubicals to avoid detection like Neo in the first Matrix movie!

Eyes wide, short brown hair frizzled because it’d been one of those days, he gawped at… at his Boss and Corporate. It was the fifth “immediate supervisor” he’d had this year, and Frank hadn’t bothered to learn the man’s name.

FIFTH?? That sounds like some insane turnover! What is this? A fast food restaurant?!

And it seemed rather pointless now, because by the look on… on Sakaki, on the man Green called Giovanni, on the man who his Boss had indicated was somehow the president for his company… Well, his immediate super’ wasn’t going to be around for much longer. Frank could see the discharge forms being penned in the black of Giovanni’s eyes.

I guess he is very familiar with the "yeah you're about to be fired" look that upper-management gives...

The President had been a different man. Frank’d been at a brunch with corporate for “outstanding performance” just last month and shook “Bolt’s” president’s hand in one of those agonizingly awkward meet and greets…..

I bolded the word above. Seems odd but maybe intentional spell check says its wrong. Pointing out in case you wanted it to read "Frank had". I guess even if its intentional, its at least distracting to me since it prompted me to write this little bit...

Yeah... Meet and greets sound pointless, boring, and awkward... 😬

Suffice to say the President’s name wasn’t Sakaki, Frank would have sworn it was Ceadersworth, Sindersworth.. Something like that. And that’d been his president, as of yesterday.

Today it seemed like it was Sakaki, and that was insane.

So... Frank? Mr Morpheus-I mean Uncle G is here and he isn't happy about you not taking the red pill...

His president had a normal name. Because most of the names on Sevii were easy to pronounce, the ancestry so Anglo Saxon that there were five Smiths on this floor alone.

Mr Anderson.... I couldn't help myself there...

“Ah.” His Boss, not the new president, was shooting him daggers, though he was smiling. Frank was going to be written up for sure.

He sounds like he is well-versed in corporate punishment. 🙃

“One of our techies seems to be a fan. Do you follow the league…” Blue eyes scrolled over his shirt front pointedly. No one wore their name tags, it’d been taken out of the rulebook years ago and his superior was going to make it a point to slap him down like the small man he was.

This part confused me a bit. At first because the "Blue eyes" part. I had to read it like 5 times before I got that it is referring to his boss. So it sounds like Gio is asking Frank's boss about what he thinks of the league and Frank's boss caught that Frank was wearing a shirt that indicated something about the league. I guess asking about the league is something like politics. You can give an answer, but depending on who you are talking to, it can be a very bad answer. So I guess Frank's boss used Frank as an easy reply to Gio's question. Is that what is going on here? Even now I am not 100% sure this is what is happening here. Maybe something like this:

Spoiler: Rework suggestion

Looking for an easy out from Sakaki's question, Frank's boss took notice of the league shirt Frank was wearing. “Ah, one of our techies seems to be a fan. Do you follow the league…”

No one wore their name tags, it’d been taken out of the rulebook years ago and his superior was going to make it a point to slap him down like the small man he was.

This might not be exactly what you are looking for here, but it would make it a lot more clear if you want.

Bracing himself, Frank twisted his face from stupefaction to something like friendly.

“Frank. And… my daughter… wa- is a fan? I hear a bit.” He introduced himself and answered his Boss in the hearing of the deranged, delusional… President of Viridian and his company. Oh Arceus, how was this his life?

You still think Gio is delusional and deranged when he managed to pull THIS off?? I think you already know he isn't mentally ill at this point. You probably should start wondering how much ELSE you have been getting wrong! The question you should be asking is: just how deep does this rabbit hole go?

He sweated enough to be stewed in his drippings while trying not to puke. It was quite a physical feat. Lips quirking, Giovanni’s gaze lingered on him, noting each moment of physical discomfort and secreting it away in the dark of his eyes. Frank’s skin started to creep, did the man just not blink or something? Wanting to shake his head, Frank shrank back instead. He was not thinking about how creepy Sakaki was, he was not. Just focus on not puking, not puking was pivotal for getting out of this with his job.

I'm surprised he thinks he has any chance of KEEPING his job in an environment like this WITH Gio now here too!

“Couldn’t have known,” came the murmured rebuke from WhatshisName. And Frank knew the rules, as did Harold who was earwigging as hard as he could without looking up from typing like a mad pidgy.

This is some serious office drama here.

Now was not the time to make a stand. Black eyes scrolled over his desk, lingering upon the nick-nacks to lock on a picture, Frank’s wife, he had a picture of his wife on his desk and would have had Green if Green weren’t so dogged about not having her picture, her name, anywhere.

Aww he wanted Green there too. 🥰

It’d seem mad when they last argued about it, but now he was glad. Smally glad this lunatic wouldn’t get the pleasure.

The pleasure of what? He already knows who Green is and who you are...

Besides him, still typing, Harold was pretending no one was there, and it seemed to serve WhathisName and Sakaki heartily approved because they ignored Harold in turn.

Keep your head down Harold and what ever you do, do NOT appear to be friends with Frank right now or even on good terms with him!

Looking about, without wonder or inflection, Sakaki hummed, some decision made.

“We should move along.”

Oh no.. this is going to be BAD news for you Frank!

And it warmed Frank a bit to note that Sakaki didn’t bother with WhatshisName’s name either. As they wandered off the Italian rose his voice, words clipped, and the accent and tones recalled Frank to an ultimatum that he couldn’t quite excise from his head.

Uh Frank? That would be because Gio see's your boss as completely irrelevant to the reason he is here. You should be afraid. VERY AFRAID

“I noticed a profound lack of company culture here… No activities to encourage closeness, loyalty, or the next generation to join the workforce as the old hand's fade out. This really must be remedied, so I was thinking, how about hosting a “bring your kid to work day”? Might bring some new blood to the place.”

Ah so he can meet with Green that way without the threat of police. Clever!

And as Frank’s boss fell into raptures of bootlicking Frank sank into his chair. Face pale, shaking a little bit.

Given the turnover in that job and for that position, this seems to be mandatory behavior... suddenly, Neo's reason for taking the red pill is making a lot more sense now...

Because Arceus, this was happening, had happened, somehow someway the Giovanni who wasn’t, was.

The Misses was going to have a fit.

Especially when she was told that he’d gone to HR and quit, seconds after meeting the new president of his company. Once he was sure of his legs Frank saved and logged out, packing up his things though it was hours before he had to go. Taking his personal things, they weren’t many and what pens he left behind didn’t matter, Frank packed up, cradling his things because he wasn’t coming back. Ever. HR was two stories down, he’d take the stairs to avoid the touring president and get there with plenty of time to file his papers and get the Hell out.

Ah, very wise Frank. You may live to see yet another day... as long as the Misses doesn't kill you instead. 😅

Then he was going to pick Green up, early, because Mew above they needed to talk.

Well, Frank, you had the best of intentions, but unfortunately you were wrong about pretty much everything that you would have been right about in most normal households. Perhaps now you will face the truth or at least a little more of it?

XXX

Things tossed into his passenger seat, Frank Azule fumbled out his phone. He wasn’t shaking, but his pallor hadn’t eased up. If anything else a glance in the mirror confirmed that he looked worse.

Near thirty minutes of being given an epic run around, had ended with being told “there were no termination papers available”, and “they were in a shuffle of management and everything old wasn’t being accepted but the new forms would be along… and could he wait just thirty minutes more..” and Frank Azule had lost it.

What type of Mew blasted company forbade people from quitting? Well screw them, he was leaving and he’d blocked his Boss and the company’s employee outreach line so they couldn’t call him in.

Of course... even if he quits a place like that, now he will have the immense pleasure of the application process for new jobs that I have heard so many wonderful things about...

Then he’d called the other half, and Mew hadn’t that been a call.

I love how they use Mew. It sounds so cute even when they are being completely serious!

But it’d been done and Mary was furious beyond words.

Yeah well easy for HER to get angry since she wasn't the one dealing with that awful job OR GIO showing up to it! I kind of feel a bit bad for Frank on this point...

Trapped at the courthouse, haranguing the staff, because the number and papers for their domestic disturbance call in… weren’t in the system. Didn’t exist. Even though she’d been waving them about, then some guard or other, some man in a uniform she hadn’t recognized, had taken the paper’s “to the back” and hadn’t come out again and everyone and everything around her was acting like nothing had happened.

Sorry Frank... Uncle G cheats at life poker.

The staff had changed shifts for lunch, returned, and the woman behind the counter who Mary had been dealing with from the start had looked up at her, eyes wide and vapid, and had demanded to know who Mary was.

Never mind Mary had been there since before eight, and this was the same woman she’d started the paperwork process with.

A domestic disturbance? She hadn’t heard anything, the aide avowed, but don’t tell anyone, she’d check right now. And some typing later and nothing had been noted in the Sevii criminal logs, for almost a month. She could go back further if there was a need, but this screen was clean…

“It’s insane!” Mary hissed.

Wait a minute Mary... you actually DON'T think it was Gio... do you? Oh my...

“I’m getting Green and bringing her home, right now.”

“If I can’t get anyone to review the video footage I’ll join you sooner rather than later. Someone must have seen something, even if it’s a camera. Be safe, and I’ll keep in regular contact.”

“Get an escort to the car,” Frank suggested, pulling back, eyes on the road. “Or we can pick you up.”

It’d be a ten-minute drive to Green’s school, if he lucked out with the lights he could make it in five.

“No, just get her and go. I’ll be home soon enough.”

“Love you.” Frank tabbed on because Mary wasn’t the one to offer casual endearments, that was Frank’s job. His only job until he got another one anyways. He wasn’t quite quick enough that she could reply but hopefully was fast enough she caught it before the call cut off.

It’d have to do.

Frank is the normal guy in insane circumstances. Pretty much from every direction. His kid, his wife, his job... (or lack of one now). Oddly enough his wife is the least insane thing in this bunch. He seems to be missing the point though. That point is that if Gio wanted him dead, he could have made that happen many times over by now. Unless he is willing to seek out strong trainers like red and blue to help him, there really isn't anything he can do about this...

XX

When Green got pulled out of her classes to field an emergency call from Daddy’s work… it’d been like Silph, but a more awful. The what-ifs were more grim, centering on where someone she knew was in the building and there’d be Rockets and…. And Green managed to cut off that panic off by scanning the skies. A glance up confirmed there were no psychic fields wrapped around that part of town, or at least in that part of the sky she could see from the hallway windows that were pointed the right way.

POV change alert! Ok we are back to Green now. An understandable worry for her but good thing you mentioned Silph here. Makes it very easy to understand her perspective.

“Mrs. Azule, please don’t wander.” The teacher’s aide rebuked.

And they were off again. To the schools, public phone, settled right by the principal’s office. An outdated necessity since cell phone signals were blocked as soon as one set foot in the parking lot. It was old, cordless, and heavy in her hand, still warm from touch the aide who’d pulled it off the hook, typed in the override code (983431) and passed it down before stepping back a bit to give her the illusion of privacy.

Hmm I would think its illegal for a school to use a cell jamming device(otherwise I would expect cell service at least in the parking lot), but maybe that's just how schools do it in Sevii... definitely wouldn't want to go to school there!

“This is Green Azule, who’s calling?”

Because her parents raised no fool, and she wasn’t going to assume anything. The timing was weird, an hour before Da’s first break, and Mum never called on her breaks. Ever.

Figured it was him. “I was wondering if you’ve heard any news since we last talked? I understand it’s been about a week and I meant to ask how often Silver reached out to you.”

Ooh using a work emergency as cover for reaching out to her! Neat!

“Not that often,” twirling the cord in her hand Green shifted from one foot to the other. “It’s really nice for you to talk to me on your lunch break Da’ but I got a test next period…”

And that was Green’s way of warning him they didn’t have much time and she wasn’t alone.

So conspiratorial! I love it!

He coughed, clearly the Da bit having thrown him a bit. Shame she couldn’t see his face. Oh well, just imagined him shocked by ‘chu, it’d probably be close enough. And he deserved to be shook a bit, near scaring her to death by calling from her Da’s work.

Get with the program, Uncle G, you've evolved into Da now!

She focused on his strangled noise and recalling that one time when he’d almost got incinerated by Red’s Charizard. The memories let her giggle. Happy memories, on replay, to keep her voice light, the oldest trick in the book.

Man this section is pure gold so far. lol

“I can’t believe you forgot your password again! You left it on the counter on the Illex Times, I had to keep Mum from throwing it out, you know!”

“How forgetful of me.”

“Probably want to re-write it down, your copy was looking like it was written Feb of this year, do you have a pen and paper? Or you forget that too?”

Ah so now she is tipping him off to where her stash of clues are! Clever Green!

The pen’s button being depressed managed to sound threatening, how he managed to do that over a phone line was impressive.

Ooh! I know how he did it! He pulled the pen right next to the mic an THEN pressed it!

So for that, and just because he’d pulled her out of history, she tossed him a bone. “Alright, so it’s B.2.28.par12. Need anything else?”

If he was smart he might find Silver’s wanted poster… well almost wanted poster, there wasn’t a picture, but the sentiment was there. And all in all, it was such a small thing.

Nifty to see that Giovanni with all his resources and power actually needs help from Green since he isn't able to trust Rockets to help him with this and he doesn't have the time needed to do the things Green has been doing! Really cool way to justify the narrative! It makes their bizarre partnership actually make sense!

A few words to pay him back for getting her out of class. But.. she probably should be heading back now, the aide had looked in twice, first to make sure there wasn’t any crying and she needed to take over, the second time to look pointedly at her watch and tapped it.

The five-minute time limit was so stupid, but still… When in school stupid was the rule of thumb…

Sorry grandma, I know you are dying and all, but my 5 minutes is up here in this pris-I mean school, talk to you again when I die maybe. Bye!

“Did you have anything else to give me?”

“If I find any more of your passwords I’ll let you know.” Green lied, because she wasn’t giving him the information for Silver’s photo, not yet, maybe never. “Do you remember at the last teacher-parent conference when they said I hogged the phone too much? They’re probably gonna make me hang up, I’m just glad it was nothing bad. You know?”

He hummed, amused. “I can assure you, nothing bad has happened to me.”

And to that suspicious turn of phrase Green bristled. “Or mum.” She prodded, tone going flat.

I'm glad you added that last line for Green here because I would have missed the potentially kidnappy vibes of the end of the call here if it weren't there!

Well, Green may hate the refusal of her parents to accept reality, but she certainly does love them to have such a reaction. I suppose that is already established at this point, but its enjoyable to see reminders of it like this!

“There was a report of some fraudulent police claims going about… But I’m sure that’s a minor inconvenience in the grand scheme of things.”

Telling her that her parents efforts to get him in trouble failed. 😅

Before Green could think of anything to say the aide tapped Green’s shoulder. Time was up. Green tapped one sneakered foot into the floor, suddenly frustrated, because she couldn’t think on how to end this that sounded right and wasn’t too sappy. Because Da was sappy and if she was that level of sappy at Giovanni Silver’d be short his own Da’, Father… Whatever.

Aww.. she is worried about stealing Silver's dad away from him! Cuteness overload!

“Oh,” Giovanni’s tone dropped to a tone of pure languid malice, “any minute now, I’m sure.”

And with that, and a chuckle, the Boss of Team Rocket hung up.

And that’s when Da came in. He plowed into the office like a Taurus with its tails afire, chattering at the lady at the desk to find out where Green was because she wasn’t in class…

Ah... Gio was aware the real Da was about to arrive to the school! Either that or he is good at guessing!

Both adults hovered around the computer and started to freak out together. Huffing out a little sigh she walked right up to both of them, pulled on his sleeve because she was right there and he was facing the wrong way.

Looks like Frank gets a bit of tunnel vision sometimes...

The principal office and phone slot weren’t that far apart and he’d had to walk past her to natter at the desk girl and... And he hadn’t noticed, too wrapped up in panic and adult things. It took two tugs for him to turn around and when he did he froze. Then he made up for it a little, throwing his arms around her, drawing her close, smoothing her hair like the first night back. Because he’d missed her so so much, and like then, he was now crying.

The hug was nice, even if he was a bit sweaty and worn-looking, so she hugged him back.

“Thank Arceus, I was so worried.”

*explodes from cuteness overload*

“Hi Da’,” and though she really shouldn’t, talking to Giovanni put her in a sassy mood, so she sorta did have to. Just because. “Wow, did they let you out of work early today?”

Don't worry Green, its payback for him grounding you!

“N- Umm… I’m… Let’s head to the car, we’ll talk there. We’re… She’s leaving with me, family emergency.”

Which did not sound like “a minor inconvenience” Da’s face did not look like he was “having a little setback”. Green resolved, as she took her Da’s hand and let him lead her to the car, to send Giovanni those dancing bees tonight. With the volume maxed and locked, because she could.

Uncle G is about to get his bee grove on whether he wants to or not!

Closing thoughts:
This chapter was much easier to understand for all parts of it than the previous one. Plenty of completely adorable scenes in it. Humor, matrix references, and some Sevii island world-building which makes the place seem like a giant prison for both school and work!

I think my favorite things were actually the cute scenes with Green or about Green. It was very interesting to see a pov for Frank too. All around a solid chapter!

Review:
Chapter 6: Green: Decisions and Delusions

Spoiler: Line by Line Reaction

Green sort of wished she was like Karen some days. Karen could swear without flinching from her own words, without stuttering over vileness, profanities, or… anything. She was fearless like that, and Green wished she’d had enough of that in her to actually say what she was thinking.

Yep, I can certainly relate to this!

Or just finish what she was doing even though she was well and truly caught.

Getting caught kind of puts a damper on it though lol... 😅

As it was Green froze in the middle of a heist gone wrong. Looking up at Mum, Green smiled, despite the bad angle, aiming for whimsically, because it’d slowed the punishment sometimes. Her smile defanged the angry people she swindled and made the Rockets she dealt with her hesitate. Green didn’t know why, it just did. So she did...

Comma after "As it was" i think?

"...Rockets she dealt with her hesitate." bold her needs to be removed, i think.

She has learned to use her smile as a defense mechanism! Clever girl!

And Mum, Mum was definitely not happy and it took effort not to twist to standing and bolt. Because that’s what she did, a smile and book it, hopefully, a wallet heavier on the way out.

I love how this reads. So delightfully mischievous!

But I wonder what she did THIS time?

There was really no way out of this, and none of the old things were going to work. Green knew that, so she froze.

Arm half shoved into the mattress, twisted about and on her tippie-toe to get more length out of her small form, Green was near burrowed under the mattress rooting around because her phone wasn’t a phone. No, it was a jolttik. An evil joltik whose ambitions to be on the opposite side of whatever spot Green’s arm was at.

Arms crossed over her chest, Mum waited and Green eased the mattress down and wiggled out.

Mum walked around, didn’t have to reach her arm more than a bit, and pulled out Green’s phone.

Clearly, the evil phone joltik had a favorite.

“Living room, now.”

So much for sending that Gif and seeing if Silver called.

Oh.. she got caught with the phone! Nooooo!

So, Green is thinking of her phone as a joltik I think!

XXX

Da’ overrode her passwords because of course, he could.

Well yeah... he writes code! I guess that doesn't automatically mean he could do that though so this is a good line for clarity. Plus its amusing!

And both he and Mum went over every message, every text, and thank Mew they didn’t go over her contact list… Because what they found was bad enough.

Silver lining I guess?

Silver didn’t call. She hadn’t lied to Giovanni about that, but he did text and send a lot of picture messages. She’d missed two, a nice picture of what might be Oak’s reserve, a field with a familiar white fence anyways, and when she didn’t respond he sent a “U alright?”. The last message was from three hours ago.

Uh oh is this going to make Silver come rescue her with his mons??

And Green could completely understand wanting to have a super-powerful Psychic-type just then. To be able to tell people things from impossible far away... She’d of told Silver she was fine, just up the river, and not to call, not until she found a way to obscure things better.

Cool little bit of insight here! Also makes me realize that Green should probably never be allowed to have a psychic type as that would make her shenanigans increase exponentially!

The anynominous call, twice, during the middle of her school day was ominous, but luckily that person hadn’t left any messages so nothing came of it.

Bold word above misspelled.

Definitely seems like a case of 'could be worse'.

She suspected it was Giovanni. The time frame from him calling her school from the last call was five minutes apart and the man was obsessively fussy about punctuality. Green’d heard Grunts and Executives moan about it when she’d crept through her fair share of bases back when she did stupid things like that for Mask.

And the man seemed just like the type.

Seems a reasonable assumption!

Funny that Rockets complain about it.

“It’s not just me being obsessed with a screen Mum.”

Oh her mom is chalking it up to too much screen time. Some parents really go at it for that.

Green made one attempt to defend herself, picking on the accusation that’d hurt the most. Then she just gave up. Letting them do whatever with her phone because they were going to do it no matter what she said. Unable to do anything much she’d have to wait….. And save up to buy a burner. Once her allowance was unlocked it’d be Green’s next goal, there had to be some up-and-coming trainer in town she could wipe across the floor or something.

Green will not be contained!

Jiggly’s groom kit could wait; she’d just have to share her comb a little longer.

That is so cute! 🥰

“Silver’s still out there and I don’t want him to be alone, so I try to message him a few times a week.”

Aww Green! 🥰

“And why weren’t you…. Why don’t you try to talk him around, to go to the police, to his father, to somewhere stable and safe.”

Because less than a year ago “safe” had been the road. Stable had been a cave or unoccupied hotel or apartment they could break into. And Green could say it, had said it, and they hadn’t heard. So she didn’t say anything. She didn’t nod along; just let them talk at her because right now there wasn’t much that she could do.

And if they were thinking she was weird, well they were being weird. Asking questions she’d already answered, and telling her to tell them right even though she already did.

This part provides a lot of good thought process for Green as well as providing some good context!

“This… Giovanni’s… fixation… is a bit off. Has he done anything to make you feel unsafe?”

Now if Green told the full truth the answer would have been something like “he’s never stopped” but as it was… Green wasn’t going to go there. If nothing else Giovanni taking over Da’s work and playing with Mum at the courthouse was very much like a Persian batting a rat trapped between its paws. The claws would stay sheathed, until either hunger or malice peaked, so right now the thing that happened to her parents was Giovanni playing.

This is a great description from her perspective!

And she didn’t know how to say that without scaring them senseless, so Green didn’t say anything at all. Just thought, and tipped her head to make a show of thinking, because to Mum’s question she was going to have to say something.

Rocket had ways of dealing with problems that left bodies and ruination, enough so that you could walk down the street in Rocket garb and be treated with nothing but respect and groveling. Treat a Rocket bad, even a Grunt, and you would get a rabies-infected zubat sicced on you the next night.

Ok so rabies confirmed as an actual disease in the fic! Yikes that is scary!

Wheezing could be left in a car trunk to either explode or flood the vehicle with toxic fumes. Bank accounts hacked and emptied via backdoor routes that bought and paid security programmers left for them to use.

Good to see Green elaborate (or remind in the case of those who read the manga) on Rocket tactics.

There were other things, things “below level” that Will’d seen and told them as horror stories. Usually the psychic whipped out his tales right before a Rocket mission because Will was a sadist like that. If the junior Mask disciples died from being sloppy due to sleep deprivation, that was them being weak, nothing Will did. Mask wouldn’t look further than the body. Then it was for retrieval purposes to dispose of any evidence.

What a charming fellow!

“I didn’t really meet him until lllex, and it was a mess. He was sick, then Celebi was there, and then he wasn’t. Then it was Team Rocket and the League and Red and Blue and Gold and… Everyone was there. Everyone had an angle and… And when the people we trusted, the ones that said “hey we can help you find home!” suddenly turned around and said “hey the Mask says he’s good now and wants to talk to you”.” Green’s voice rose in a crackling laugh. “If Silver hadn’t tossed down a hail I’d of had Blasty wash them all away.”

Good for some more context/reminder for readers.

While Mum paled, because that might have been confessing contemplating murder, Da’ cleared his throat.

Considering her mom knows how much Green can do with her mons I'm surprised she doesn't consider Green to be more capable than Green is. 🤔

As for her mom's reaction, seems in character and is a nice little detail.

“Why didn’t you go with Mr. Sakaki if… if your friends… did what you said?”

Woah is this the start of Frank being willing to admit that she MIGHT be telling the truth?!

“Well after I spent a bit admiring the new shiny knife stuck in my back.” Green growled… “He… Giovanni was up to his ears with Team Rocket.” Not a complete lie, just the truth in a way they’d expect. “They’d tried to kill him,” it was a telling a smidge out of order, but oh well. “Him and Silver. So getting Silver away from everyone seemed… safer… especially since the “good guys” were going to pass us back to Mask on a silver platter.”

Its cool how you needed to think of ways for Green to explain it in a way that works to her parents. Really gives it some depth! Also, I realize there hasn't been any mon battles in the fic yet, but when the story is written well like this, it doesn't have to! I'm not sitting here thinking 'man this is dragging on! when is it going to get to the mon battles?'.

All to keep Giovanni out of power. But considering what she’d seen, today with her parents, and the glimpses of Rocket on the run, she suspected that Giovanni hadn’t lost a scratch of power. Even as he was dying. If anything everything that happened post-Ilex cemented the man as untouchable and well connected.

The idea here being Gio is menacing and powerful. A good line to attest to that as I get the impression this fic doesn't want to portray Gio as weak and lame.

So Green wished Red luck, (not really but it was the nicest thing to say) but didn’t expect anything of the champion’s efforts to take the Rocket Boss down. Except maybe he’d only be champion for a little.

This give color to her interaction that sounds like the manga did not dive into. Nice tidbit!

Some digging online had proven that Blue Oak was barred from the gym leader’s association and Giovanni’d taken back his gym. Letting Blue open the doors then, the day of sweeping in with a team of lawyers. Giovanni’s reopening event was going to be announced after the corruption cases against all the elite four were wrapped up. Suffice to say that put a damper on the trainer season.

Not sure if this was in the manga but its either great new information or a solid reminder of what was in the manga.

Which meant Green’d have to wait until next summer at the soonest to restart her journey. Which meant having to get money by earning her allowance, what few battles she could kick up in secret, and… getting a job she guessed? If Mum and Da’ let her.

So she does intend to restart her journey. Good to know!

For now, it was back to sorta (not) lying.

“The last I saw of Mr. Sakaki, was the Mask was making a grab at me and Silver and Sakaki got between us and him and was threatening to tear Mask apart with his Rhydon.” Actually, it might have been Nidoking, oh well, “he’d just sent Team Rocket packing,” ordering a withdraw was sort of the same thing, right? “and Lance whipped out a Dragonite,” or three, “to stop him. And Silver was scared and freaking out, and he screamed at Sneasel to hail and Sneasel made it hail... And we ran.”

The way she words this is redundant towards the end but it works very well for the kind of explanation she is giving! Also, I don't know if she is forgetting details on purpose, but being somewhat vague makes it easier to fix later if they scrutinize it too much! Very clever, Green!

She’d been blocked from all the goodie goodie squad’s emails and phones before they’d even gotten out of the forest. Her phone’s plan turned off, become Oak had been paying for that, and then all of a sudden he wasn’t. She’d had to steal a phone with GPS because her maps and everything was locked up behind her ‘dex. So she hadn’t known what happened to the goodie goodie squad after they left.

Bold word should be: because

Green got kicked out of the good guy club. Puts her in an odd middle ground where she can interact with both Gio and potentially the 'good guys' later. Gives a lot of potential for what she can do and experience. This works really well with her as the primary protagonist.

Truth be told, she hadn’t cared. Still didn’t.

I think I detect a hint of a grudge here. Makes sense with the whole Mask ordeal.

The bad thing was that she couldn’t answer any of Mum and Da’s questions, because she’d told them bits and pieces about them while she traveled. And they just couldn’t understand why Green suddenly stopped talking to them, or about them.

Good to know. I imagined it would be confusing without this bit here.

So, no, she had no idea what any of her “League friends” were up to. And as for why hadn’t Silver gone to them, rather than to Green’s place… She’d already said. The good guys, giving them back to Mask.

But that clearly wasn’t good enough.

So Green gave them another reason.

Why had Green brought Silver, a known delinquent, to their home? Well, Green had thought her Mum and Da would be able to put up with Silver until Silver felt safe enough and well enough to call his Da to take him home.

So sorry she’d gotten that wrong.

Yeah... that was pretty messed up how they they just sent Silver packing like that, but that is only because the truth was so absurd that it seemed to them like an outright lie... Interesting dynamic here where you both hate what happened but can also understand the motivations of the characters.

They’d winced at that, but hadn’t apologized, hadn’t turned around and said “We’ll take him in for a little so Giovanni can pick him up.”.

Aww.. this is a bit sad. Seems like the thing that might make Green want to cry but that she would hold back the tears on to avoid crying.

As far as the rest of the dex holders’ went, they weren’t friends. Green didn’t have any of those, except Yellow and Silver.

And they hadn’t known about Yellow because they hadn’t asked. And just then, Green didn’t want to share, it was petty and mean, but she didn’t.

I'm having a hard time understanding why Green considers it mean not to share with her parents things about Yellow. I would think the lack of her parents willingness to apologize and take in Silver would blind her to any meanness on this point at least right now. On the other hand, this could signify that Green is very in tune with things even when she is upset. Seems like a very mature stance for her age though she did have to grow up in some ways very fast.

Yellow and her pokecenter phone stealing shenanigans were the highlights of Green’s weekends. Anytime between six and eight, she’d call. Saturday unless something was up in the Forest, then she’d call Sunday and be utterly wiped but still chipper. Because when was Yellow never chipper? Since she didn’t have a phone Yellow had to use the semi-private one at the facility and play nurse keep away and hop around with it in her hand, all while still trying to stay in the view screen and…

This sounds both cute and hilarious!

I'm surprised she doesn't have enough money for a phone from mon battles though unless Yellow just doesn't battle much or spends her money on other things.

And Yellow’d totally earned herself the ‘nick of Khanga’ from all the hopping. You just knew a nickname stuck when Silver cottoned on to it, found it funny, and started using it non-stop. Because Silver almost never noticed anything like that, and he’d noticed, and been amused, by Yellow’s hopping keep away with Viridian’s Nurse Joy.

So I guess the manga or at least your fic is using anime style nurse Joy for the various poke centers. Amusing!

And Yellow was loyal. One long call with Green later and Yellow’d washed her hands of everyone and everything League-related. Though her talking to Giovanni was weird. Because she had to talk to Giovanni to work with Viridian co’ right? A company wouldn’t take up a lawsuit by some kid's hearsay.

Oh interesting detail there. Certainly good to point out.

She’d have to ask Yellow how that happened when she got her phone back. Which sounded like never, because Mum and Da' were seriously going on a tangent about screen addiction. And how Green needed to show better sleep management skills, because why was she taking calls at six in the morning…

But Green... You are still growing. Some sleep does help. You are around your parents because they help you feel safe. But who am I kidding, if my phone was taken away like that I'd be peeved too...

Anyways, Green’d have to check. If she got her old phone back she really needed to check Yellows call history with her, because the last time they’d talked, really talked… Might have been a few days before Giovanni’d called her. So Yellow might have been the one that’d spilled Green’s number to the old Viridian Fat Cat.

And Green’d have to decide if that changed anything between the two of them if Yellow had been the one to squeal.

What if it was for Silver though? Does Yellow care about Silver? I can't remember.

Running a hand through her hair, head buzzing with plots and suspicions and anxieties, Green’d started humming. Wishing Jiggly’d hear because Jiggly’d offer to sing. And right now Green would say yes. Mum and Da' looked at each other, then her, concern obvious because Green hadn’t meant to hum out loud. But she had…

So humming is something she does when she is in a bad mental space it looks like. She does things like that to try to cope it seems.

And she didn’t need their concern, what she needed was for them to believe. If they weren’t going to do that… She stood, just done.

“I don’t... I’m I’m tired. I’m going to bed.”

The war on truth continues.

I think you meant for her to say I'm twice there, but pointing it out anyway just in case.

She’d accept the phone as a loss to get out of this talk. So she left them to… how had Giovanni put it… delusions? Well, whatever delusions and decisions they were going to come to were on them.

It wasn’t like they were hearing her anyway.

Well... Now I think is when things are going to escalate. I get the feeling her parents are about to have a bad time...

Closing Thoughts:
So, this chapter continued to be easier to follow even with the entire pov from Green. Maybe I'm getting used to her pov? Hard to say.

Lots of cute moments as well as some useful context and reminders of things. I'm also getting some foreshadowing vibes here too.

The story is taking it's time, but I think that is what really makes it able to work.

Looking forward to next chapter!

 

[Tango]

Review:
Chapter 7: Green: He'd live

Spoiler: Line by Line Reaction

It’d taken three days, three of battling every “walk” with Nido. She’d had to cut through elementary schoolyards, because she needed to win the fights without Nido getting scraped up. And she had. At the expense of a few little kid’s lunch money.

Aww that's kinda mean but it is to go towards her goals and they are won from Pokemon battles which are legitimate ways to make money in the world...

Still, to make things sorta right she made sure not to hit the same yard more than once. And skipped picking pockets, because though it was unlikely she’d get caught she daren’t.

Why not dare though? It doesn't sound like she is shying away from picking kids pockets though it is objectively deplorable... is she worried about the slight chance of being caught because of how it would affect the relationship with her parents? (Understandable if so since she does still love them)

Battling wasn’t quite “against the rules” yet, so she could claim ignorance if Mum or Da suspected anything or worse found proof.

Nice loophole!

She couldn’t go around saying she didn’t think stealing was wrong, no one’d buy that. So she didn’t sell that tale.

Or at least she thinks that no one would buy it. Her smile would probably sell that very easily to quite a few people though I'd imagine!

Smuggling her winnings under her shirt, tape running with the grain of the stripes and seams to make the adlibbed pocket all but invisible, it’d been a way to shuffle her money around and about. And while it was an inelegant hiding place she’d managed a system to stick the money inside her pillow. It hadn’t taken too long to save up to buy the cheapest phone she could. She wasn’t aiming for smart or anything fancy after all. Just a flip device with a camera that sorta worked. Something with enough memory to handle texts and a few pictures.

Clever girl!

And once she had it, calls she made, after counting coins to make sure she absolutely had enough for a minute text hybrid card.

This sentence read a little weird at first, but I got it once I slowed down. Nothing horrible like having to read it 5 times in a row though.

First, she’d reached out to Yellow, because she’d gotten it on a Thursday and a day charging meant she was reaching out to the younger girl come Friday night. Or rather texting. She daren’t call from home.

Always good to see the various ways she is sneaky. Adds depth!

Anyway, the messages were short and quick and sent to a friend of Yellow’s that Green knew had a cell phone. It was likely class time in Viridian, and they usually sat together. So when class was boring they shared his phone. When Yellow responded that she’d stolen her friends phone Green got to business.

Her messages were abrupt and reasonably snappy all things considered.

Do not call her personal line unless Green called first. She’d tell more later. And nothing was seriously wrong, but her parents were drawing all the wrong conclusions. Like thinking Mask was imaginary. Then she ordered the girl not to respond to this message, Green’d call when she thought she’d get to walk Nido again, (late Sunday) and apologized for making Yellow camp out at the pokecenter just to talk.

Then she asked Yellow to pass the same message along to Silver.

Finally some communication to the world outside the grounded stasis bubble the parents have been keeping her in!

Of course Yellow wrote back.

Promising to give the night shift heck (she couldn’t even write Hell, Green’s lips quirked at that).

Yellow is so wholesome! 🥰

And some sort of symbol smile face thing that the new phone did not like at all. Doing the time zone conversions in her head and on her fingers to double-check it, Green sent the time, waited five minutes, then got to destroying the evidence. Setting the phone to mute, she ran it through a factory reset, deleting Yellow’s friend’s phone number from the logs and making the device almost good as new.

Green has some skills!

It wouldn’t hide the data usage if someone really dug into the phone but most people didn’t bother with that.

Impressive knowledge for her to have! More than I would have expected!

Then she’d left the thing to charge. Green was proud of her adlibbed charging station. Making a slit in her backpack she’d thread her charger cord through right under the shoulder strap, she plugged the phone on the cord’s end and buried the cord and device under her books she wasn’t going to need. Propping her ‘pack against the wall, she’d hidden the charger’s existence with the use of angles and Nido. Setting Nido’s napping blankets just right so that Nido thought Green’s backpack was a new pillow.

Its fun reading about Green's ingenuity! Kinda cool too!

Since no one could easily move a napping Nidorina Green left her to her new pillow with a pat, then set up her study desk with all her assignments in a row, shuffling the papers because random was the only way she could be bothered to even try at this silliness anymore.

Huh, so it sounds like she is barely able to bring herself to study so that was the only way she could think of to force herself to do it. Yeah... homework sucks. Even at home school still pesters you...

A quick shuffle (cards were easier, but the motions were the same enough Green’d managed a nice rhythm going) and Green flipped over the top page. History, multiple-choice, some war about Kalos, be still her beating heart.

This must be a nod to the manga but I don't think I ever read the manga far enough to get that reference. 🤔

Wishing Nido was more hyperactive so she could “take her for a walk” and call Silver, Green let go of the wish and self-pity and got to work. After all, if wishers were fish… But that was stupid, they only sounded the same. If wishes came true there’d never be a bird in the sky, or birds coming through windows, and Mask would really be a bit of old nightmare only half-remembered who’d never taken anyone.

This is interesting. We got to see examples of her wishes!

These make sense. Its all to do with Mask.

Not real, and not uncaught, and therefore dangerous, still.

And this wasn’t helping, taking one deep breathe, then another, Green tried to drum up some interest in the questions in front of her. She just… couldn’t. Kalos was stupid far and who cared about what they did? It wasn’t like it impacted her in on the fringe of Kanto.

Welcome to the worst part of school Green: learning stuff that most likely will not benefit your life in any meaningful way! (Not the case for all of school but is the case for far too much of it!) 😅

After a bit of waffling, Green decided boring as this was going to be it’d be for the best to drag the homework out anyway.

It wasn’t like Mum was talking to her anyway, and Da was out job hunting, so for now it was her, Nido’s snores, and King of Kalos the Frist and whatever actions he’d pulled to get slotted into her curriculum for company.

Rewinding that last bit in her head Green sighed. She should… probably… do enough reading to get the guy’s name down at least. Just in case one of her parents decided to ask what she’d learned in school today.

Ung. Why her?

Homework. The struggle is real!

XXX

It took two walks, two days, and while Yellow was bubbly, bright, and frustrated with her inability to help she’d pass along what she could to Silver.

Silver’d called on Green’s third walk, exactly one minute into it. And suddenly Nido’s mad dash down the sidewalk was a blessing, she’d had an excuse to run, and once she caught Nido instead of popping her in her pokeball and going home she’d waved the poison type on.

And a race, sure, Nido loved those. Showoff she was Nido took the lead, leading them towards the beach, Green a goodly ways behind her. Slowing to a trot, she’d lost anyways, Green dug out her new-old phone and picked up on Silvers fifth ring.

Here it is!!! Conversation with the illusive Silver!

And while jogging, she explains everything. Her situation, Giovanni looking, everything everything.

Did you mean to have bolded word 'explained'?

Ohhh yeah! Silver getting caught up to speed!

And because he’s more than earned it, Green offers. “Did you want me to lie, or not help?”

The first would be tricky and dangerous. The second.. well she’d just not call on her phone or let him know about this one. She couldn't stop Giovanni from bothering Mum and Da’ to make her talk, but she could drag it out.

I feel like this scene could use some more dialogue prior to Green speaking here. Its making it hard to figure out what Green is talking about lying or helping about. So ultimately its talking about her asking Silver what he wants her to do in relation to Gio pertaining to the search for him (Silver) but I had to read it multiple times to get there.

Sounding younger than he had in years, Silver whispered. “He’s not mad?”

Like him not going home is a broken window or a badly Dug hole from a ‘mon or something. But Green thinks it over, about how Giovanni’d spoke to her parents, and legends and leagues… How he’d had to be pulled off of Mask, and she’s sure Mask’s face had been broken and bleeding even as they’d turned tail to run.

“Not at you.” She answered honestly because she thinks he isn’t.

Insane as it sounded to say out loud.

“It’s just... it’s weird. Do you think he cares? Really?”

A lot, Green’d say if she were normal, I think he cares a lot.

This is really cool to see Green picking up on this. I don't know, maybe its because Gio caring about his kid is one of the driving forces of the narrative that makes readers want to see more. Good stuff!

But she’s not normal and she remembers Mask’s tenants. How no one would live them, ever again. How he’d make sure of it. They’d do evil until they were evil and no one could stand them. Except for Mask, because Mask made them, they only existed because of Mask and only be so long as He willed.

I don't know how much of this here is directly from the manga vs what you came up with, but either way, this is extremely well written. Really helps show just how badly Mask messed these kids up. This would probably be in a top 10 highlights for the fic so far if I were to make one.

Also shows just how much Mask has some kind of retaliation coming to him. Too bad there isn't a morally grey at-best character with exceedingly powerful mons who would enjoy ripping him to shreds... oh wait there IS.

“I kinda think he does, he’s just really weird about showing it.”

“I don’t want to talk to him.” Silver whispers the confession. He’d shouted it before, spat it… Now it’s a stuttered mess. Getting away from Red and his constant ranting had done Silver some good, he was wondering now, even if he’d never say it. “But you can... if you can…” he tabs on bitterly. “The pictures I guess? Just not the texts. That’d be weird.”

And Green agrees it would be weird.

“And tell him to stop being a jerk to your folks. They’re scared stupid by the sound of it.”

And to that Green laughed. “You think I didn’t try? So what’d you and Snea’ do today?”

I guess that is a bit of a problem. How DO you get a mob boss determined to protect his kid by going through your parents to get you to stop provoking your parents? Other than giving him exactly what he wants, I'm not sure there is much of a way out of it at this point! They better hope Gio continues to have good self control... otherwise its not going to be pretty! Yeah... them messing around with Gio might lead somewhere very bad. I've got a bad feeling...

And they fall into their pattern, Green kicking sand because she’s at the beach and Nido’s chasing the surf, baying at the waves. But it’s not surfer season, so no one cares,

I enjoy the reasoning here.

the picnickers are further back and the swimmers are riding their water types and trying to pose cool while they do it. They share stories, and Silver’s stoked, he found a thing of unguarded Beedrill honey and is making plans to harvest it, for something. Green knows that tone so she doesn’t ask. Her classmates bore them both to tears even if her impersonations make them laugh so hard it hurts. And under the pretense of catching his breath Silver passes the phone to Snea’ who'd been perched on his shoulders making grabbies for the device carrying Green’s voice. And because she’s not embarrassed to talk to Snea’ on the phone Green rolls with it. Chatting at the dark type for a little before she pulls out Jiggly and lets them talk to each other a bit.

These antics add some much needed flavor to their interactions/relationship. Great choice and timing for it!

“I know you’re in Pallet and so you’re close to Viridian, so I’m gunna ask. Don’t prank him alright. And before you say I’m a melting heart, I’m not. I just wanna go first.”

“How’re you going to do that?”

Well, that was a stupid question. Green already told Silver about the GIF, described it lovingly even, and gotten his full seal of approval. But then she rewound the statement and realized, Silver thought her parents were good at hiding things. She supposed if she were respectful and mindful of things like privacy Green’d be stumped, but she wasn’t. She’d already found her phone, it was in Mum’s nightstand under some frilly lacy things. And she’d need two or three minutes to dig out the memory card and send all the pictures and a very specific GIF out. Cruddy as it was her “new” phone could do the chore. It wouldn’t be hard.

She’d also have to tell the Rocket not to call, she’d call him.

This might be a bad idea, but darn it Green! It does sound pretty funny! Ok fine! Poke the Gio bear but don't come crying to me when the bottom falls out!

That part… Green wasn’t looking forwards to it. Trying to give Giovanni Sakaki an order. It wasn’t going to go well or be fun. She’d have to trust him not to take over her school in retaliation. But the glut of Silver pictures might slow down any angry Rocket shenanigans.

Hopefully.

Whatever happens, I'm pretty darn sure it won't be boring!

Affecting a lightness she didn’t feel, Green chuckled.

“Oh, I have my ways.”

“Never doubted it.”

Or her. Somehow, someway, Silver never doubted the person he should have the most.

She never got it, Silver’s reason, a straightforward answer to “why” when she’d broken and asked. “Why” did he trust her, with… everything. Even when she’d messed it up so badly. But he did, did now even.

Well Green, you and Silver have gone through a lot together. He is perhaps the only person who seems to completely 'get' you. Cute that Green has a hard time understanding it.

Green promised, and checking her counter Green could see her plan was running out of minutes, so she had to let him go. A holler at Nido and they start the long walk home.

She went through too much to get back in touch with Silver. She wasn't about to let minutes sneak up on her and ruin it!

She got the cad by slipping Jiggly into Mum and Da’s room, one song to deepen their sleep and she got the card and got out. Setting it onto her new phone was a chore, loading screens and waiting.

So sneaky!! I think Jigglypuff is probably one of the most underrated Pokemon on count of its singing. I'm surprised its not a Team Rocket staple actually. It would make robberies super simple for many of them and would help capture locations without damaging them so the Rockets wouldn't need to repair them after taking them!

Imagine if there was a character in the anime who used some super ear plugs and a Jigglypuff.

But she got it loaded and then sent. Every picture, every thumbprint and jogged smear shot. Every crystal clear shot of the road when Silver was still. Every shot of Sneasal who’d doggedly tried to eat the phone for a month straight. Giovanni had it all and it took all of her text plan to send everything and one specific GIF.

And if she sent it after midnight, well Mum and Da’ had stayed up late, wasn’t on her. And if he couldn’t reply to her and would get an automated message saying the phone was out of minutes/data/ and what not…

Giovanni’d live in suspense for a little, and good for him, he could enjoy it.

Well she knew how to poke the bear, and she poked it. Yikes? 😅

Closing thoughts:
Ok so we finally get some interaction with Silver! I'm not really sure what I was expecting from him, but I'm curious what direction his character will take in the fic. Right now I can't really tell.

The chapter is good at showing how resourceful Green is and that if she really wants something, she is going to find a way to get it. Her and Gio are actually very alike in that way, but Gio is willing to do much worse things for what he wants.

It was also nice to see some interaction with Yellow.

Review:
Chapter 8: Green: Boxes, Tetris, and IceCream RD

Spoiler: Line by Line Reaction

Boxes are piling on the beach. Boxes atop boxes, right in the middle of… well it’s not secluded, but it’s a not popular spn of the beach. More rock than sand, enough so Green wore boots. Someone has smoothed the sands, crunched the rocks together, and on these platforms started what looks like a Tetris game, save it’s real, the blocks are heavy, brown, and far enough from the surf to get washed away when the tide kicks in. Green wanders into the mess in the making because there’s no tape or signs saying to do otherwise. And she’d curious. She teases and sasses at the workers in their no logo uniforms. They “talk funny” as Silver’d say it, alternating Kantoian with… something else.

popular "spn" of the beach? Is that a typo?

"And she’d curious." This line seems off. Did you mean to say "And she was curious." or maybe "And she'd be curious."?

We are hearing this talk about Green and Silver as if its not them who are the pov... is this pov Yellow??? 🤔

A familiar language, near fluid but cut, and in dry tones among each other. A few wave at her and she waves back and pointedly ignores them when they graduate to trying to wave her off.

"near fluid, but cut," large bold comma added where i think it might go.

It’s the most half-hearted order to buzz off she’s seen. She’s not a beedrill, thank you, and won’t be shooed off like one.

Hmm but what are they doing and is it really Yellow who is the pov?

It doesn’t take long, they’re hollering among themselves, something about a Cap, and then she sees him. A familiar teal hair bobs among the short boxes, back and forth. She can see his arms wave as he’s yelling at a few who are yelling at her. The same langue Green guesses, but not the same words. Finally, the boss of this Tetris board steps from behind a box, more than familiar, and her hands drift to her belt even as her heart picks up pace.

Oh.. pov is a disembodied narrator this time? Are we about to see a mon battle??

The Rocket sees the motion, lips quirked halfway, half his face, like the zombie sh’s called him,

Ok so its at least a Rocket!

jeered at hi for being across the courtyard of a tumbling building.

Did you mean to say "his" instead of "hi" here?

Face pale (giving more proof, more fuel to the fires) despite being out in the sun…. But then Archer always looked sick to Green. Paler than she’d been under her mask, but no ice around him to make him like that. It’s a wonder he hasn’t combusted yet. And that’s petty, but Green’s not feeling nice. Not obscured by a cap baring an R, sweat making him look soaked, and plastering his hair down like hes’ got a off-color scraggly mop on his head Archer looks both resigned and irritated to see her.

So Archer is a rocket who used to be working for Mask and he is someone Green really despises. I thinks that's what's going on? I forget if Archer was mentioned in a previous chapter.

Not surprised.

“You need somethin’, little miss, ya lost?”

She considers throwing Blasty and telling him to get lost. Considers it a lot.

I like the funny way this reads

“Nah, just poking around my training spot, you know, the one I’ve been steaking out for the last few months.”

should be "staking". Misspelled. Unless she really loves steak and its intentional. Considering Green's upbringing, I wouldn't put it past her... 😅

And to that he sorts. “Damn kids and their sports… we ain’t gunna be here long.”

I think you meant to say snorts here instead of sorts.

She hears it and turns. And is able to see it even though the boxes around her are taller than she is. It’s beeping is so deep her bones feel like they’re rattling, sand crunches, and inching across the shore, is the biggest truck Greens seen. The really really big rig drags across the sand, coming to a stop a ways away, the other side of this clearing/Tetris mess, and Green’s gapping, just a little.

"gapping" did you mean gaping or gasping instead?

I wonder what's in the truck... what are these Rockets up to? 🤔

“’nother shipment. Damn my life…” The Rocket spits to the side, then remembers her. “D- Drat. I mean drat.” And yeah Greens smirking at Archer and he scowls down at her. “Look, we’re gonna be here, day or two…”

My current theory is that Rockets are going around the perimeter of the island burying bombs everywhere. Once they are done, Gio will give the signal for them all to explode at night when no one is on the beach. He will do it to rattle Green's cage i guess. Dunno, but that's my current theory.

Tauros droppings. And Mask will skip to the nearest police station hand in hand with Lance, right now. Green checks her phone, and nope, not on the news.

Wait.. don't tell me she actually checked her phone to confirm that Mask wasn't skipping to the nearest police station hand in hand with Lance...

I'm guessing it was something else. But what is she checking for, I wonder?

She also checks the time, not as much as she’d like to train, but boxes and displaced Team Rocket movers and all that’d seemed interesting.

Rockets that can do all manner of unspeakable things to you seem interesting?

Granted, I suppose she does have Blastoise...

“So you need to leave. And… like not trainer here, for… however long you see these.” The Rocket sweeps an arm, indicating the boxes. “Capiche?”

"not trainer" I think you meant "not train".

“No clue what that means,” Green says, she can guess, but no one’s ever just said it out straight and she’d a bit curious. “But I can go train somewhere else.”

she'd pops back up again and also in a situation where I would expect a "be" right after it. I'll chalk it up to a stylistic choice then and ignore it if I see it again.

“Good, and it’s not nice Italian for “got it or I’ll rip your arms off”.”

“I’ll remember to ask your Boss that, next time he calls.” Green jeered, skipping back a bit and watching him go curiously paler. She didn’t know he could go paler. Wow.

“The fu-Frick you will! Gah, just go!” And he’s waving her off and with a laugh, she goes.

Why would he believe that a 10 year old girl trainer would be on speaking terms with his boss?

Regardless the humor here is not lost on me.

I question it but enjoy it in equal measure.

She finds a spot of beach close enough she can see the boxes and people working around them if she squints and far enough they can’t see her mess up when she does.

Mess up what?? Hmmm!

So since she doesn’t have a ton of time she makes training play. And the beach becomes the scene of a water fight. Blasty kicks it up by falling to Nido’s provocative tial whips. One too many and the turtle is chasing Nido across the beach, rumbling. The turtle’s shoulder cannons spraying a gentle gush instead of steel breaking force, curring lines in the sand. Horsea’s wrapped around Green’s arm like an animate laser tag gun, practicing her land shooting with water, not ink, because it’d been a nightmare on her clothes that last time. And they chase each other around and make a muddy mess of everything.

curring should be curing.

This seems to be leading somewhere. Spraying the Rockets with water 'accidentally' perhaps?

Seeing where this is going, Ditty quivers into the form of a pink and off pink striped umbrella to wait the “training” out.

Nido’s got a killer aim, chomping on mud, rolling it in her snout, and spitting mug balls behind her.

I think you meant mud rather than mug here.

A few rounds of that ended with Green hiding behind Blasty. Inspiration struck and she scrambled up the shell. Perched on a canon, she lets Horsea go wild. Sliding them down the turtle’s shell when Nido tried to retaliate with a mud ball. It hits. Blasty, in the face, and the turtle hunkers low, forelimbs glowing. The surge of sea that sweeps everyone and everything off their feet is waist high and glowing slightly, meaning it’s Blasty’s surf, and something shrills. A scream, that comes and goes. It’s probably a stupid winggull, good riddance. Scraping off his new mask of mud, Blasty gargles a few bubbles, and Green pronounces him the winner.

I have to admit, I'm kind of lost as to what Horsea's role in this battle is. I guess Nido got hit with surf which ended the battle? I'm not sure if Green's pov is to blame for the confusion here or if the writing is. 🤔

All bad feelings are forgiven and the turtle indulges a spat of preening never mind he’s a turtle, not a bird.

A nice line. Shows that her Pokemon battle amongst themselves but don't hold grudges against each other.

“Come on champ’,” Never mind Red was technically Champion, he’d never fought against Blasty. She’d snap his title off of Red faster than that one time she got his wallet. Green slaps Blasty’s shell, hard enough he’ll feel it as a pat. “Let’s head back.”

This does help to sell the power of her Blastoise. Both from the fact that it won the battle and for what Green thinks of him.

And her and her waterlogged team go to the main beaches, with its sidewalk paths and shower stations. The regular beachgoers give her a look for hogging all the public showers but tough, and they’re adlibbing a rain dance by shooting off water guns at the sky and sloshing the worst the mud off.

Sounds like they get the job DONE when it comes to cleaning mud off!

Green starts to head home, wet and smiling, recalling her team, until she gets to Ditty’s too light ball..

And…

Oh no….

The scream… at the beach… that wasn’t a bird.

It was Ditto! It must have been. That is hilarious!

“Oh crap oh crap….” She runs back like the world is on fire. Because while Ditty can turn into something that can float he could only float for so long.

Once she hits the familiar waterlogged spot she calls out Blasty who is unamused by her order that they need to start searching, now. Still, they go. When she does find Ditty he’s a pink rubbery ducky on the ocean, that “Dits” at her sullenly, instead of squeaks or quacks like it should.

Its been a while since there was last a cute moment. Poor Ditty. 😅

“I’m so so sorry.”

And Ditty looks at her, beady eyes hurt, shrugging out of his bouncy to settle awkwardly in her lap before scrolling up to nudge against her stomach. Familiar with Ditto hugs she snuggles him close.

“Thanks for forgiving me.”

And the cuteness continues! Actually though, a ditto and a Jigglypuff are very powerful options to have depending on what Green is doing. Her team is actually low-key scary.

Black eyes consider her, thinly, before he spreads across her waist, shimmering into…

Huh, he can turn into a belt. Neat. It’s white, with pink and baby blue stripes, clashes horribly with her black shorts and tee-shirt but… He’s glaring at her from the belt buckle with slit eyes. Then he ripples a layer of sequins into existence around his edges. Rainbow ones.

“I said I’m sorry!”

Another row appears a neon green one.

“Ok how about ice cream? I got enough allowance to get us that? You pick, any flavor, any size.”

Beady eyes consider her… the neon sequins look like overlong, weird eyebrows… Then with a “Dit” he slumps into his familiar pink form, blobbing on her leg and clearly wanting pets.

This interaction is some gold right here! Ditty adds on the pressure by making the belt more and more hideous as its way of getting even!

Honestly this reminds me of the interaction with Mimikyu in Negrek's "In Ghostly Fashion" one shot that I read a good while back! Well done!

So she indulges him, and they go to a mom and pop ice cream and amuse the staff by carrying him over the tubs so he can look at each flavor. Then once he wiggles ascent over the sherbert she takes him to the cone wrack. Sure he’s going to pick the rainbow sprinkle ones. He always does.

So, it looks like sherbert is spelled wrong, but I'm not sure 'sherbet' is how its supposed to be spelled either. This is a weird case of that I prefer it spelled wrong because the correct spelling looks less correct.

In other news, now I am craving orange sherbert to the point where I don't want any desert or food right now but that. *Goes immediately to the kitchen and gets a bowl of orange sherbert and looks longingly at the bowl* You and I have some catching up to do sherbert... yum! 🥰

Ditty tumbles free, oozes back to the giant, Green sized, tub and chirps up at her.

“I am not getting you a tub bigger than me.”

“Dit!”

You got brain freeze the last time I got you a jumbo cone… you’ll freeze solid. Anyway, we can’t eat all that! And we can’t resell it; you need licenses and stuff to do that!”

Reading this put a smile on my face.

Ditty is probably now my favorite of her Pokemon Followed by Jiggly, Blasty, and then Nido.

Because hoo boy Green’d gotten that lecture when Mum caught her selling excess “trainer goods” from her travels. “And free- frid- cold boxes, those are bad and we’d need like one bigger than that barrel!”

Huh, I wonder if this ties in to the seashells chapter one shot thing you wrote. Sounds like it easily could!

And does Ditty come to some sense and shimmy up to a cone? No. He wraps around the tub and looks at her, beady eyes going wet and runny.

Ditty might be even better at getting what it wants than Green!

And the staff are.. well they aren’t even trying to not laugh their heads off. Thank goodness it’s quiet today or there’d be patrons and Green opens her mouth. She’s got the pokeballs here, and what she says should go, right?

And Ditty snuffles.

“I’m uh… I’m gunna make a call.”

Oh um... I was not expecting her to dodge the situation that way!

Green slips out, and after a span of walking back and forth a bit, weighing her options she knows what mum and da will say… But she’s got someone else to call, and if she words it right… Maybe he’ll fold. He’s just got to be busy and she’s got to be charming and lie a lot. Only one of those requires luck so she’ll roll the dice and see how it goes.

So she calls his personal line and she woke him up, alright, not a good start. But she might be able to swing it.

Is she about to ask Uncle G for an allowance to feed Ditty sherbert?

“I need like…” The cashier helpfully spins the screen around so Green can read off of it. “One hundred ninety-nine dollars and fifty cents.”

He asks her what time she thinks it is in Hoenn. In a tone that indicates he’s got less than four hours of sleep thanks to her and he’s thinking about sending hitmen, with guns...

And Blasty’s just wheeled the barrel from off the counter and easing it to the floor. With a squeal Ditty slithers in and shifts so he can have proper jaws to bite. He looks like a slime-bottomed trapinch.

“Of course it’s for finding Sil- Why else would I call asking for money?”

This is hilarious! Shes really DOING it!! 🤣

He gives his card number out, eventually; and the charge doesn’t bounce so it’s a real account. Mew be praised. Though considering Giovanni’s history with mew… Celebi be praised? It’s more to shut her up, Green’s sure, but it worked.

Until Giovanni wakes up fully, realizes she did ask for money, and then looks up where the charge came from.

Then she’s in hot water.

But until then, Green sighs watches as Blasty digs a frosty Ditty out and then takes a scoop out of the barrel to sample the goop within. The turtle’s stub tail wags and well… not too much will go to waste, right?

Honestly though, Gio has so much money the lack of sleep probably bothers him way more than the money...

“Can I have a spoon, and a bowl and a ‘mon-human table please?”

Because Green is not missing out on free ice cream, even if Giovanni kills her for it later. The cashier passes her three of everything and a wad of napkins. Maybe thinking the ‘mon will eat nice and civilized.

Green, you are looking at it wrong. If Gio is going to kill you for it later, you have to make every spoonful count!

They don’t. And Green’s nursing a tummy ache and brain freeze when she waddles home right around sunset.

This has been a wonderful chapter to review over my bowl of orange sherbert. I feel like I was in the ice cream store eating with Green and her mons!

And she gets another week added to her grounding even though she’s obviously sick before getting sent to her room to sleep off her “illness”.

She dreams of the ocean and wakes up with a taste of salt spray on her lips and eyes burning and wondering why.

Cliffhanger chapter ending?! What?! Now I'm really curious!

Closing thoughts:
Ok so this chapter was possibly the funniest one yet, with the obvious star being Ditty.

The battle was a bit confusing at parts and for some reason this chapter in particular ad more wrong word choice and spelling errors compared to other chapters.

Overall, even with the confusing bits, this chapter was still a solid good read! (especially over a bowl of orange sherbert!)

Review:
Chapter 9: Giovanni: The Snowman Expereince. Aka second and third prank. RD

Spoiler: Line by Line Reaction

There was a snowman on Giovanni’s desk in his Viridian office.

Clearly crafted by pre-adult hands, the tells were in the size and shape. It’d been set on the center of his desk, one twig thrust through it, to give it arms, some leaves pressed against it to give it “clothes”.

It looked a bit like a hula dancer in the right light.

Well, this chapter is off to a weird start!

The other, larger, snowman, was part slush, part snow, part damaged carpet rolled up in three lumpy balls. Those had been stacked into the chair across his desk. It’d melted enough to tip, and he righted it with a nudge as he circled it. Not quite believing it even as his wingtips

Wingtips? This honestly made me think this chapter was from the pov of Giovanni's bird Pokemon until I read further down. I'm guessing it was meant to make for clever wording but it just ended up being confusing...

squelched on the drip of water coming from the mess in the making. The larger snowman sported more character. Feathers for eyebrows, PCP pipes for arms. Each arm a different size, mind, a different pipe type. Both were scuffed enough to be scavenged from a construction site of some sort, darkened about the edges that they’d been dragged over asphalt more than likely. That was definitely some sort of thick glass popped in the place of eyes… The color and shape were a bit familiar, and Giovanni decides as he looks at the slumping thing, that this work is meant to be a bit satirical. He’d been described as cutting by acquaintances he supposed, and the black glass is almost the same color as his own eyes.

Given how the roombas went, this sounds like the work of Silver!

And he doesn’t quite know what to do with the mental image of his son combing the streets, perhaps junkyards and construction sites at night, picking up bottles and sharp fragments for materials. Trying to find something that matched one viewing among the fire of a falling aeroship, or in that hail-streaked madness of Ilex when everything’d gone to Hell.

Such thoughts make Giovanni’s throat tighten, and he has to look away a bit until he feels steadier.

He’d have to read the local crime section and see if he could find anything tangible to save, and perhaps have to cover up, but until then…

Giovanni takes his seat at his desk and stares at his son’s… art. The Rocket had thought he’d missed this… all of it. And even though it’s a destructive variation… Well, he has his son’s art in his office. Probably a decade too late for it to be sentimental, but still, Giovanni’d enjoy it while he could.

Aww its a prank but hes actually ok with it because its still attention he is getting from his son! Very good scene for adding depth to Gio as a character.

And, he decided, pulling out his phone, he’d preserve what he could.

Something Gio can be sentimental about. Yet another reminder that while he may be a mob boss and villain, he is not actually a monster.

Record keeping done, he divested the thing of its outerwear. A feminine coat from a middling brand the tag affirms. Not the local Viridian Co’ owned mall. He’d have to research this competitor, but thought; maybe, it was a branch in Celedon. Whatever its origin, the coat is too small for his son unless the boy was starving.

(Which he’d better not be. Green and Yellow’d assured him in their own ways that Silver was reasonably healthy if possibly sleep-deprived and anxious. While not ideal it wasn’t starving, and that thin comfort had allowed Giovanni some sleep from time to time…)

This implies that he loses sleep over worrying about Silver. Wholesome isn't always a word you would put next to Giovanni, but honestly, here it works!

Running a hand over the material, he finds an inner pocket, and though Silver’d clearly tucked something within to keep it safe the ice had melted and damage had been inevitable.

He pulls the missive. Slitting the envelope with his paper-knife confirmed it’s not for him. Basic reading assured it.

He’d acquired some of Green’s mail it seemed.

Understandable considering he and Silver weren’t quite on speaking terms yet. But second-hand communication via Yellow’s tales and Green’s passed along pictures was a start. After all, Silver’d consented to the information exchanged both times. Giovanni’d refused Yellow’s information (no matter how crazed it’d made him. His lackeys, Rocket and otherwise, had suffered until Yellow’d gotten Silver’s blessings) something that might of lead to the boy being so liberal with the pictures a few weeks later.

Wow so he went out of his way to respect Silver's boundaries too. Its hard to find many people in the world that would care to that extent, mob boss or not!

Regardless, while not for him, it’d been meant to be found by him and passed along.

He wondered if Silver was aware of the madness that’d seized Green’s parents and seen him as a route or lesser evils.

Always interesting to hear his thought process on things.

He wondered if Green was aware of the picture and its frame he’d sent to her home, twice now.

Both times the girl’s parents had disposed of it and out of spite before she’d gotten home. So he’d let it rest.

Gio is being surprisingly chill.

He’d allowed Frank to get his last job, not blocking the application as he had with the others.

Chill here too!

Some small company competing with a Lysandre puppet firm, Giovanni forgot the name. Though the innocent people of Sevii had no clue to its purpose, Giovanni and Lysander’s power plays were so subtle the police had no clue of either Flare or Rocket being on the island.

Something tells me Sevii is much happier not knowing these details...

Planting an inside man, no matter how unwilling, in the crossfire when things came to a head between the “firms” might be useful at a later time. And if Frank proved uncooperative he’d be a decent patsy with “discovered” ties to Lysander and a springboard for police to start poking around.

A win-win all around.

Well... this result is not unexpected for Frank given the situation. Sucks to be him though!

The office, a bit above the man’s paygrade (as was the whole position really) sported nice AC for summer days, a state-of-the-art heating system for winter, all tied to a remote control synced to a remote on Giovanni’s desk. The large window looking out on a parking lot could be made lively by a hanging plant sil the Rocket supposed. What the man did to the room was his business. The only other expense was one wall set to company-approved art.

So he can make Frank sweat or get cold at his leisure.

Specifically, a wall of ice with its... abstractly profane, scratches were meant to be a point of gaiety, or so said the company paperwork. The photo had been expanded and ringed round with a gilt gold frame. Expensive and expansive enough Frank dare not throw it out, damage it, or take it down.

It’d been bolted in to the foundation, only a blow torch would peel it off, and its glass case was sate of the art, bulletproof, fireproof, and smear-resistant.

Something tells me Frank is going to get the message here. 😅

Giovanni really did hope Frank was enjoying his first day at work. Truly, the man’d been working so hard to get any other job than the one he’d held for so many years, such vigor should be rewarded. As for Giovanni, he considered the clothes he’d rescued from the lop-sided mess across from him, twiddling a tassel on the scarf as he considered his options.

These Giovanni pov chapters are always a pleasure to read. From the way he thinks, to the small actions with his hands.

Well, this was one way to find out if Green had found the gift card he’d ordered planted in her locker and had the time to activate it.

Tapping in a string of familiar numbers he made the call, it rang, automated message felled by his generosity. For that Giovanni cracked a tight smile, as his son’s efforts at satire sunk a little lower the chair as heat and time broke it down.

When she picked up he’d managed to sound warm, but then it’d been a good day, so he indulged the feeling with candor.

“Silver sent you something via my office. How can I pass it along without it being destroyed?“

“Oh my Arceus!” She sounded so affronted that he’d called, and he was still smiling, despite himself. “I’m between classes! How is this thing even working?”

So it sounds like he was able to access her phone plan to pay for more minutes so that she couldn't prevent it from working by it being out of minutes!

Oh, I thought Green used Mew instead of Arceus.

And yes he can hear the shuffle of bodies, that isn’t his problem.

”Remote upgrade.”

She’s strangling on her own tongue, trying not to curse him out in public. If he were a sentimental man he’d claim it was adorable. Like a newborn meowth flashing fangs and squeaking to assert its dominance even as it was being wheeled up by hands too powerful for it to break the skin of.

He blamed the dancing Beedrill pictures that Green kept sending to him for such an irrelevant tangent.

“I also have… something you requested. I’ve sent it along a few times… with no luck.”

He was being tactful, and her silence stretches a bit so Giovanni listens to footsteps and mumbled adolescent conversation for a time.

“How many times?”

So much for being affronted by him calling!

“Twice.”

“Ung! Really?”

“I know it’s not… tasteful… But perhaps a corkboard false front would be better? It could be rotated so you can look at it when you need to.” Giovanni offered.

“No.” And there’s fire to the girl’s tone, he recalls Silph almost… pointedly. “Fit it in my locker, I’ll smuggle it home, and put it in my room, in the right spot. They take it down… they touch it… and I’m done.”

Woah Green is NOT messing around on that point!

Gone, so promises the tone.

He’d normally not wish the anxiety of a lost child on anyone, but Frank and Mary were all but begging for it.

Yeah... I'm inclined to agree here... I mean its not their fault that something so crazy is going on and its objectively understandable how they have a hard time coping/believing it, but on the other hand they are totally wrong about it and Gio has been much more patient with them than he could have been.

“Silver also sent something sentimental along, a card; it’s unfortunately too damaged to send via post. And I was only able to make out a word or two. Your name, and the word midterms?” He leaves it hanging and Green...

Green chokes, composes herself, and barks out a laugh.

“Oh my Arceus! I told him… that’s like in two months… not…” Another laugh, “guess he really thinks I’m going to pass.”

“It could be arranged.”

It’s almost a sincere offer and wouldn’t be the first he’d forged academic papers or league forms to lure some promising youngster into Rocket or provided a cover for exemplary service.

I bet if Green asked him to do it he would probably do it in exchange for something. Heck, he might even just do it. Uncle G be cool like that.

“Thanks, but no.” She sounds utterly sincere, which is a bit disquieting, “I’m trying to rig the system a bit, get myself flunked out of this “fru-fru ladies only but it’s not because that’d be sexist” academy. At least in public school, they let you have your team.”

Noted.

In other words: Uncle G, if you ever need to give Green a spanking, just make sure you do it at school where she can't use her mon to protect herself. 😅

I hope this is a trap Green set as a precaution rather than just blurting out her weakness like that! I suppose it makes for an interesting bit for potential foreshadowing either way though.

“I’ll bring your things about… day after tomorrow? Same place as the card?”

“That’s fine; I’ll get it after school I guess...”

The sounds of footsteps recede, and he can hear her summon something. There’d turbulence, but she doesn’t have a bird. The mystery is solved with, after a thump, a soft voice chirps “Jiggly” and he can hear her recalling her ‘mon.

“You know,” and he blames Silver’s project for the near playful slant of this banter. “If you wanted to get kicked out I could forward your evidence of some of your Mask activities to the police. Some break-in or other, nothing bloody.” He offered, tones dipping to a silken note he’d held before setting up a hit. “Give you a real criminal record.”

Careful Gio, you are sounding a little like Mask there...

“And work for you and only you Uncle Gio,” she chirped and he swears he can hear the fluttering of her lashes and imagine her pout. “Mew no.” Her flat denial makes him laugh, and she picks a slow path across… well it isn’t’ cement… perhaps shingles. “I’ll stick to cons if I get that desperate.”

Well here is an interaction both Green and Gio seem to be having fun with. That's a bit of a different dynamic than in earlier chapters. Amusing to see!

Ok so Green uses Mew sometimes and Arceus other times. Sounds like she uses Arceus when she is more surprised or angry. Works pretty well!

“Ah, but swindling under Rocket gives you dental.”

Probably also free sherbert. I feel there was a missed opportunity there to mention the sherbert. (kind of like come to the dark side, we have cookies, except in this fic, it needs to be sherbert)

Suggestion:
"Ah, but swindling under Rocket gives you dental... and sherbert for one hundred ninety-nine dollars and fifty cents at four in the morning."

You can then make a funny reaction for Green of some kind.

“I can just punch a teacher or something if they won’t let me leave. Make my own criminal record all on my own. Sooo…” again he can imagine her fluttering, if he sees her doing it he’ll rebuke her. The motion might seem cutesy but really conveyed an air of simplicity and thus should be used sparingly. “What’d he send me?”

“Wait and find out.”

“Ung, you’re a real jerk, you know that? It’s right in front of you, you could just-”

“Keep back talking and your first job under Rocket will be to be paired with Sabrina.”

And the amusing banter continues!

I'm not sure about the significance of Sabrina here though. I know she is in league with Team Rocket but I can't remember what -if any- history she has with Green.

“You wish.”

“For a month.”

“Denial is a river in Kalos!” She sings in reply. Perhaps seeing a guard or other she keeps the volume reasonable.

As for himself, he exercised his prerogative as an adult and cuts the call off before it got even more juvenile. Clearly Green was susceptible to victory high with something as small as successful ditching. He’d have to keep that in mind if she did join Rocket and train it out of her.

Already looking for ways to help her in her Rocket career-to-be! Its too hard for it not to be cute.

She calls back twenty minutes later. He’s settled on the patio outside the ruins of his gym, winter wear spread beside him to dry in the sun. Some grunts were scouring the building for ice and snowmen and tossing the ice onto the gardens, a free watering for the plants that were hardy enough to take it. He was neck-deep in League business when his phone rings, and looking at the number swears that if its’ the damned bee picture again he’s going to have someone burn Green’s mother's work down.

Hes just been taking the bee pictures in stride but has just about had enough of them!

“So… Silver said last time we talked that he found some honey….”

“Good on him.” The Rocket snarls, because he’d nearly slipped heading out of his own office and brained himself on an ice jag. That’d been enough to kill his good mood. “Is he adding it to tea or expanding out on his camp cooking?”

“He used it to tar and feathered Professor Oak.”

Well... he deserved it for using those birds on Green! The crusty old man!

The confession came out as a rush and Giovanni stopped typing, sure he hadn’t heard right.

Disbelieving it herself, Green repeated the words in a numb monotone. Gaining feeling and inflection as her rant went on.

“He feathered the professor with half-rotted pillows. He stole pillows from a hotel, a nice one with real feather fluff, and buried them somewhere wet so they’d really rot… and he tarred the professor with warm honey and… and M-Murkrow did a fly-by, lifting them up high and letting them drop. He… he tossed the pillowcases up and aerial aced them before they got down and… And it’s on the internet. Pallet’s main station is showing it non-stop. It’s on international news.”

Getting pranked so bad that it goes on international news. Yeah, I think Oak got what was coming to him.

Closing everything work-related Giovanni flipped to a news site. Viridian’s main news vine. It was the top story here. The footage from Oak’s cameras was abysmal. Murkrow could have been a painted pidgy if one didn’t know certain details. And there was no evidence of who’d broken into the hotel to get those pillows. No report of lost pillows. The buckets were Oak’s own feed pails repurposed, and there was no footage of who hauled the honey in. It’d likely been warmed and flown over from someplace on the reserve. Camp hot plates could do wonders, and Oak’s reserve was massive. If it were a dark type that’d done the fly by, if Silver flew off on the dark type immediately once Murkrow returned to him, then the police psychic types wouldn’t be able to get a bead to teleport the suspect in, sense motive, or identify the assailant.

“Oh my Arceus, what was he thinking? It got on TV!”

Considering his son’s mindset, the bits and pieces he’d glimpsed by proxy and hearsay, Giovanni clicked on and saved a few of the choicer pictures while Green, for lack of better words, freaked out. He allowed her to verbally flail, much longer than he’d tolerate in a subordinate because she’d needed to vent about something. Anything, really, considering the pressures in her life. Five minutes was a bit much though, so it was then he cut in.

Yeah... he definitely has a soft spot for Green.

“I suspect the motive was mainly altruistic.”

“How was tarring Professor Oak-?”

“It made you laugh, didn’t it?”

“A little,” The girl confessed. “He’s in so much trouble.” She hissed to herself.

Look at Gio go, trying to smooth the relationship between Green and Silver more. It does make sense though, Green is good for Silver.

Giovanni’d sent up a cleanup team to make sure everything was tidied, scrub away any loose DNA. Perhaps there’d be an opportunity to plant some bugs into the Oak residence, he gave the appropriate agents the roper permissions with a few flicks of a keyboard while Green seethed.

Smart ideas there! I like how you tend to find so many angles for Gio to work on things.

Silver’s distraction could be manipulated to best serve Rocket, and Giovanni would use it best he could though it was… unexpected.

“And he gets you to call him, even if it’s to yell at him, its attention, isn’t it?”

“That… He… How?” Green huffed, flopping on something heavy by the sound of it. “How do you know about that?“

Yep I can see this chapter is making some serious strides between Gio and Green. I love the way its written too. Very smooth and natural!

Truth be told, he was a father, been one long enough to realize that type of tell. Silver’d been doing so since he was two, tossing toys to get attention and affection. This wasn’t too different. Funnier, yes, but much the same, the writing was on the wall. And Sneasel didn’t even need to sink her claws into the ice to tell the tale; all the signs were there, loud and clear.

Makes me proud to have seen it way back in the first chapter I think.

“Experience.”

And let the little girl take from it what she would.

I also like how he conveys many things with simple one word lines.

Closing thoughts:
Alright so this chapter had minimal spelling errors (none I think?) Off to a great start there already.

Most of it was easy to understand. There was a bit of humor too.

Its great how it spells things out about Silver's behavior as there are probably plenty of readers who might need it. Even if a reader already guessed it, its good to have confirmation too.

The biggest thing about it was the interactions with Green. You can clearly see that the two are starting to become closer. Basically its giving the audience what they want and it works really well!

Review:
Chapter 10: Green: Twisted inside and out

Spoiler: Line by Line Reaction

AN: Sorry I needed a fluff chapter from before. The next few are going to be rough. Green has a bad flashback, triggered by her feeling unsafe, and it gets ugly in her head and out of it. Reality get a bit wierd.

This feels kind of like a spoiler. Maybe it should go in a spoiler tag.

I feel like you put it here because of how different the chapter will be than previous ones. Seems fair.

TW: flashbacks, discussed violence, brainwashing.

Well I'm definitely going into this one with eyes wide open and ready for just about anything.

“Don’t forget your MP3 today.” Mum orders, before Green can head out.

Green really views it as an order? Her mom clearly mentioned it to help add value to Greens day. I feel like that's all. Unless they installed a tracking device in it or something. If they did that, it would be pretty sad for Green once she would find out. (Which I assume she would, as resourceful as she is.)

Hey, what about the saltwater taste cliffhanger! *went back to read it again at the end of Chapter 8* Oh... if her eyes are burning, its from crying. Tears are salty. She forgot how she cried a ton. Oh wow, that really seems to portray something is wrong!

I’d been their most recent bribe. A reward for copping out and not defending herself when they dug into the “Mask Story”.

The reason might be bad because of the harsh truth but it's still a gift from her parents who care about her. Always such complicated relationships. It's written well though and I like it!

And Green’d taken it, more to have something nice to sell it in a week or two than because she wanted it. She wasn’t even going to take it out of the box, that’d add to its value. But Mum had done it for Green. Pinning it right and center on Green’s backpack strap so the painted flower on it looked best.

“Fanciest flower pin ever Mum.” Green laughed. “You know without a charge and songs in it it’s worthless, right?”

Aww Green that was a bit mean... Yes she is delusional, but she sincerely wants you to be happy and that is a small way she can try to help with it...

“Sometimes utility isn’t everything.” Mum huffs then runs a hand over the too shiny thing, once sure it’s set she reaches up, ruffles Green’s hair. “I’ll talk to your Father. Maybe we can bend our punishment a bit, you normally don’t act up, so I get two days ago was a fluke… So, maybe tonight, after dinner, we can put some songs in.”

“Alright,” Green doesn’t even care, but if it makes them happy... “Let me know.”

Green definitely seems to be in a bad mood... but good to see she is still considering their feelings.

Then she’s off, jogging to school because it’s not that far from home, and on the way there she might have “accidentally” drawn Nido to make it a race. Nido wins, and at the crosswalk, before the entranceway, Green recalls her with a “You only won cuz you cheated, good girl!” And then, Nido’s gone, lost in a swirl of red light, her tail wiggle and after image in Greens eyes when she blinks.

Makes sense that she would interact with her Pokemon in various ways like racing. Stuff like this shows that she takes care of them and enjoys having them.

Just a regular day.

This by itself in combination with the warning from earlier makes this feel profoundly ominous. I believe that was the intent. Just a small handful of words to convey lots of depth. Kind of like the kind of dialogue we see from Giovanni at times.

As she walks in Green pops the MP3 player in a pocket. Mum might have forgotten, but the school had some strict policies about electronics and she doesn’t want to have to lie about a permission note that doesn’t exist. So she keeps it in her pocket and forgets about it for a bit.

A good detail to include. Otherwise, why bother bringing up the MP3 player to begin with? I wonder what relevance this will have later on... I feel like there will be something.

When Da’ comes home, early and pale and grumbling about some obscene art in his office,

Great follow up from the previous chapter!

well Greens there to greet him. Da’ shakes off his malaise when he sees Green, at home, taking an off day from training and not in her room. The MP3 player is in her hands. It was shiny, screen and something in the flower's depths glinted when it was tilted and Green’d been trying to figure out why. Mum hadn’t been home, so she’d sprawled on the couch and seeing him…

Uh oh... there really is a camera inside it isn't there???

Green flashed him an apologetic smile, moved to get up, but Frank waves it off.

“I know I’m supposed to be in my room but I… Just needed a break from it.”

And Frank knows, understands. She’s not a bad girl for wanting a different scene. He sits beside her because she’s still small enough and he’s hardly a big man and the couch is meant for three.

At least he is relenting some from the grounding. Which by the way, even with her sneakiness, Green has been taking it rather darn well!

“Like it?”

“Definitely shiny. Snea’d have a field day, she liked to pop Silver’s phone in her mouth when if shined, we had to fuss with all the settings so it wouldn’t… so she wouldn’t...”

And she’s smiling fondly, missing Silver but just needing a day off.

Sounds like she is a bit tired and under the weather here.

Her stomachs still a little sore too, so yeah, off day today. The fact she had nothing but review cemented it for her though she hadn’t told either one of her parents about that. Was undecided if she was going to.

Nothing but review? I don't know if this is a weird thing with this chapter in particular or if this is worded wrong or badly. All I know is that this part really confuses me. Not sure why her stomach is sore either unless its after-effects of the sherbert...

Say,” Da’ touches her knee, smiling brightly. “How about we get that downloading done? Just so it’s not a pretty doo-dad.”

“Legally?”

“Greeeen.” Because he knows she knows about their many many illegal tv stations. “Not every media we consume is under the table, alright?“

So Green starts sing-songing shows they shouldn’t be able to get, while Da laughs and tells her to cut it out, or at least make it to a show tune. To that challenge, Green accepts while he boots up his computer and sets the site up.

“This thing is a special MP3 player. Super durable, so you can take it training, can take a pikachus thunder I think, but because it’s special it only takes certain types of files.” He explains when she comments this isn‘t a site she recognizes. It’s not mainstream anything. Like off-off mainstream, it’s so off its stagnant greywater.

“I think we need to run a virus checker.”

There are weird ads. And not adult weird ads. There are security systems, anti Rocket blurbs, and considering Giovanni’s last visit and shows of jerk tendency…

So much of this ominous chapter is about this MP3 player. I'm starting to think it has a bomb in it and half their house will somehow explode from it.

Maybe Da had put some things together but wasn’t talking.


Well if he’d ordered some of this clickbait Green should probably chip in by taking down her shock-bell. Preferably before some poor delivery person rang in and got a jolt.


She’d meant to do it right after Giovanni tripped it, pass it off as a science project but… it sorta slipped her mind.


Then she’d gotten in trouble and sneaking out to take it down just didn’t seem worth the trouble.

As much as I hate to admit it, this did leave her in an awkward spot regarding it. Understandable reason for putting it up and also understandable for her to fail removing it and forgetting about it. Man would it suck to be the one who trips it though!! She would get in way more trouble if an innocent bystander got hit by it... 😬

"Go wild, I’ll be right back.”

And since Da was going to the bathroom, well Green decided she might as well get a time frame. Some of those ads had said Da’d got something already. So the delivery could be any day now.

Hmm... does Green consider emails to be ads? I mean you might get an email confirmation if something is ordered. I'm guessing ad is a term Green uses for more than just ads.

And since it was Greens day off she didn’t really want to do it today, but she needed to make sure because knowing her luck she might have to. A few clicks and she had da’s email open because he never bothered to log out. It was too easy.

Sounds like what I do with mine, but I also don't have Green living with me... 😅

She doesn’t get past the first page.

She’s clicked the email closed, flipped through the music site, and makes a show of being bored when Da returned.

“It’s all so old.”

“It’s classic, sweetheart.”

“Classically boring”

Yeah... one thing parents seldom 'get' is their kids taste in music... Interesting how this shows the music preference for at least one of them though. A small detail of depth.

And Green wrestled the impulse to glance worriedly at the “charging” camera-tracker device. Wondering if it can sync to the computer and read Da’s history.

Camera confirmed it seems unless Green is just wrong about it. I doubt it though. Also, I suppose you could say its a metaphorical bomb that will likely lead to a falling out with her parents.

Dang though... so Green had to find out like that. Now the trust between them has been harmed. The delusions you can kind of explain since in a normal circumstance her parents would be right, but the camera... that's hard to watch...

If it can she’ll claim she made a mistype. If they call her out on spying, she’ll make that her excuse. She was in and out. The excuse might fly.

Maybe, hopefully.

She is so screwed.

Ugh... her father is too good with computers for her to be able to solve this with computer skills.

Green picked two songs at random, then “remembered” she had homework. Da’ smiled and let her go, Mum would be home soon and she should trot so she wasn’t caught.

“No plans of that.” She promised.

So… so screwed.

So, I think what is happening here is that Green is aware that her dad will be able to tell that she went in his email. If so, with there already being a camera being involved in the situation, that will probably serve to greatly escalate things even more than they already are...

By the way: I want to point out that the way you space your lines in your fic seems to do a good job. I'm almost considering doing something like that with mine. I just figured I would weigh in on it since I don't think I have mentioned it in any of the other reviews for you so far.

At dinner Mum asks a new question, a jarring one, and Green wonders how many computers this stupid thing can talk to at once.

Because it’s so pointed, and prying.

“Why aren’t you talking to anyone?” Then she backtracks at Green’s scowl. “I mean you never bring anyone over. Never talk about anyone in school…”

I think her parents are trying to do this to understand her better and to try to come up with ways to help her... but this is going to go very badly...

And Green remembers. Silver curled beside her, both snuggled under a stolen tarp while Blasty chuffs across the water. Backward. Because hydro pumping across the water if fun and faster. Magicarp fly up and over Blasty’s shell while they squawk and squeal because Blasty meant it, he had. And Green was lecturing the turtle while Silver is nudging flopping fish back into the water.

"across the water if fun and faster." if should be is here.

Sounds like she is remembering something that was funny. The reason she is remembering though is because she is trying to escape from what is currently happening. Maybe that she is trying to deny what is happening. Poor Green...

Apologizing as he does so, the dork.

“We don’t have to be mean.” He’d explained. “It’s… nice.”

Then he’d called out Sneasel. And yes, it made it colder, but it was so pretty when the ice type dipped a claw into the sea making a lacework of fragmenting snow and slush spread out behind them. The Magicarp bonk through the skein, sometimes slipping and sliding behind and beside them, like the world’s worst ice skaters.

That is pretty funny though to imagine all those ridiculous Magicarp flopping around uselessly

“I’m still in trouble, aren’t I?” Because this was a stupid and incriminating question, the timing alone. Mew, she is not stupid young anymore. Green took a bite of something tasteless and swallows with a few chews.

So this is affecting her so much she isn't even registering taste of something that probably does have an actual taste.

She’s counting in her head, bites, and chews, minimal needed to not choke and get done.

Because if she stays… if she stays….

She reaches back, for a memory in her head because she needs something, something to keep a bright smile on her face, or at least keep from crying, It’s an old trick, method acting, but what she digs up is more real, more weighted, then the real moment. And for a second she’s there, not here, and she’d rather be there… So bad..

Right on the money it seems! Poor Green!

With a cry Sneas’ lunges almost over Blasty’s back. They both grab an icy leg, wheel her back. And Sneasel doesn’t fight them. Rolls around, a fish in her mouth, the tail flip flipping at them like a wrong tongue. Green sees its’ dotted, then the dark type spits it out.

I have no idea what dotted is supposed to mean here. Maybe its something that everyone is supposed to know, but I honestly have no clue.

Catching the fish between gleaming claws and caged in her grip she spins around, dipping it into the water, in and out, again and again, chirping to herself.

In, splash, chirp, out. In, splash…

It takes Green a few repetitions to recognize it, and she laughs.

“Oh my Mew, she’s vroom vrooming it!”

This is great though!

“She’s what?” Silver sputters. “I only did that once, she wasn’t even out!” And he’s blushing.

About something so small, so stupid, he really is a dork.

Aww so Sneas is a lot like Silver in terms of tendencies. That's cute.

And the warmth snuffs out, going cold… because Green remembers…

Uh oh... sounds like things are now about to go south....

There’d been a mission that they failed due to their “unchildlike behavior”. Cozying up to some social worker who was a collector of something Mask had wanted. And they failed it somehow, royally freaking the poor old woman out. Mask had gotten the thing he wanted, with Will, and Will’d left a body because it was Will.

And after reading the woman’s report Mask had quoted the woman’s own concerns like it was their fault and hauled them into an empty cell, left them, then returned with a box. Mask crackled and glistened as he moved, all ice today, and in claws of ice had flipped the box to let spill a mess of bright, irrelevant things.

Wow, so someone died because they failed(not really because of them, it was because of Mask obviously, but they probably view it that way...) AND they were punished on TOP of that.

“Play.” He’d ordered. Intending to stand watch over them while they did so so he could “correct” them.

And perhaps he’d been flabbergasted that neither knew how.

This is sad... they have been so mistreated and had to grow up so fast that they don't... even know how to play.

Mask is such a heartless monster!

It seems there is only one thing he didn't do to these kids, and if he had it would have guaranteed pushed this fic into an M rating for sure.

Well, Green knew, but Silver didn’t and Green wasn’t doing anything for Mask unless a stint in Brown’s room was in the offing. …

Green chokes down five bites, minimal chewing because even sorta choking hadn't happened then. So it might ground her in now. She counts, guesses really, in desperation. Five more to go. It’s a big meal and Green can’t enjoy it. Even its warmth makes her feel sick when it’s Mask behind her eyes every time she blinks and she can feel the ice on her hands.

Something is going to have to be done about Mask. I don't think Green can move on until it happens. Her and Gio are going to have to hunt him down to get things resolved.

And she needs to count and not talk, just pick up chew and not talk…

And then she’ll be free.

And she’s in a cave, digging through the bright things, sorta remembering, and she digs up something with wheels. A ice rimmed truck, maybe pink maybe red. She hands it to Silver and he just holds it, testing its heft with a quick toss to himself.

“Not a ball.”

She guilds his hands so the things flat on the floor, wheels down, and she guilds his hands while Mask watches.

She guides his hands. Not guilds.

Having to do that with Mask watching makes it a horrible experience. I'm surprised Mask doesn't seem to understand that they need to be in an environment where they can play to have 'fun'. Mask is a monster, but he is also intelligent to be able to run this whole thing so far. It would be much more effective of a ploy for them to play in the future if they can learn to do so in a natural way. Would make things less messy for Mask.

“Back and forth and you go vroom vroom when you do it.”

He looks up at her, teeth chattering, namesake eyes wide and wild.

“Why?”

“Cuz that’s what little boys do? I guess? Only saw it on TV there weren’t any boys where… before.”

Because they didn’t have homes or families, and this explanation is like walking on thin ice with a sharkpedo waiting in the waters underneath.

Ugh... the mostly blind leading the completely blind. I don't blame either of them at all though...

For trying to explain the trauma though, this whole flash-back is well-written so far.

“Now this, I had something like this. Always dressed it up on blue, though I never froze mine.”

What’d been the doll’s name? Green couldn’t remember.

“You hug dolls, cuz’ they’re soft and small,” Green concluded.

Aww... that's why Green is so close to Silver. He is small and needs her. 🥹

“And you Vroom this thing?”

“It’s a truck Sil’.”

“You Vroom the truck.”

“Yeah.”

And ice crackles, the Mask is grinding his fangs, and the sharkpedo under the ice is hungry, so hungry. She’s going to be with Brown tonight before dinner, Green’s sure.

Wow they are straight up going to die if they don't learn how to play!

“Sweetheart?” Da chimes in, and Green blinks back tears for things past rather than here and now. “We sent you to the new school, there’s no one?”

And her mouth opens the truth spilling out, even though she’s not seeing him, just the room, and the Mask.

“I… I just.. they aren’t trainers.”

Great job conveying things so far in terms of how Green is feeling. I was worried it was going to be hard to follow, but so far, its working.

“And we agreed you needed to try new things.”

And she’d nodded at them, stupid, nodded along. And had no one else to blame but herself she guessed.

And she blinks and…

And Silver’s trying the noise, around shivers.

The wheels were cheap and thin. Didn’t like the hoarfrost and gloves made him clumsy. The toy went skittering away, too far, and Silver goes still. Barely wincing, barely breathing, and not daring to look up even. He bares his back, going flat, expecting claws, not wanting a fall after being scratched, but nothing happens.

Ok yeah at this point, I'm pretty sure there is no way Silver is walking away from this without serious trauma. Even if just from the anxiety of the situation alone. Even if he doesn't get physically harmed at all...

Save Mask talks.

“Get it.”

Silver does so. Settling against her, rolling the truck back and forth. He’s forgotten the noise but no one says anything. Then, putting a bright-colored block something too young for someone his age he reaches out… Then goes still, waiting for the lash.

Nothing happens. Licking his lips, Silver whispers.

“M.. Master… May I?”

Hatred for mask is growing with every bit of this scene...

Frozen jaws snap open, with a crack.

“Continue.”

Perfect way to narrate this.

Green hoped they’d froze shut permanently if they dragged this play station without making him talk. Oh well. Silver’s stacking the block on his truck and she nudges him to remind him. His vrooms, are so soft it’s something Green feels rather than hears.

One could only hope...

“I had one just like this… before” None of them have home or family so Green leaves it open-ended. “Used to pretend it was sick and I’d take her “to the doctor” and stuff. Wanted a stick-a-soap so bad.

Stick-a-soap? I'm lost here.

They,” Again no families, though it’d been Mum, “said if I was good, cleaned my room without forgetting for five days I could get one over the weekend. So, one day my doll “caught a cold.””

“What happened?” Silver’d picked up the block rolling it in his hands. It was yellow, with smiles and suns and a letter. Though it was too iced to read right now.

“I was stupid, thought if I warmed her I could cure her cold. Made a royal mess in the microwave.”

Kids will definitely use that kind of logic sometimes.

Silver chuckled, coughing a laugh while Green smirked at the toy. After all, it wasn’t Sil’ that’d screwed up the last job by being “unchildlike”.

And Mask grabs her, hauls her up, he’s had enough. She’s going to Brown’s room and…

And that’s Mum’s hand.

Being pulled back to reality now?

And when reality clicks, solid and real and warm…. There’s a –thank Mew- a fork in Green’s hand, not the knife. Heart hammering, eyes wide, she shakes her head. She wants to scream, “Don’t touch me, don’t talk to me!” but her mouth is frozen shut. She can feel the icicle fingers ringed around her jaw.

He’ll take off her face with his claws if she talks back, he’ll take her face off so she needs her Mask so people won’t scream at seeing her…

Your parents won’t recognize you, Mask promised.

And the atrocity continues to grow.

Looking at them, Green can see, crystal clear, that they didn’t not now…

Probably better to format this as "that they didn't. Not now..."

Dang though... so she feels like they aren't recognizing her.

For a while Green stares at them, not recognizing them, but reality comes in bits and pieces. She drops the fork, not caring if the bite on it makes a mess or not.

“’M going to my room.”

She turns on her heel, takes the stairs at a run, and has the door locked behind her before they can follow.

And because she’s not stupid young she shoves the nightstand right, so they can’t shove the door open. They could kick it down she supposed, and curled on the bed, huddled under every blanket she owns she waits, and waits. For someone to come up, knock, or freak out and kick the damned door down.

And her eyes grow heavy in waiting, and she blinks, means to…

She dreams

We don't really get to see her parents reaction to this, but it is Green's pov so it makes sense. I'm surprised she wasn't crying in this scene though.

Sneasel on Blasty’s shell, head tipped up, mimicking the Rocket Ariana’s walk. Fish tail flip-flopping out of her mouth like the world's wrongest cigarette.

I love how fish get described in relation to Sneasel.

These funny moments are good at trying to keep the chapter from staying too dark. They also work with it well since its Green's way to try to cope.

Like that awful Godfather film that’d been running in that one hotel, they broke into.

It just happened to be on, Silver was too young for R-rated movies and after looking up what an R-rated movie was Green was a bit surprised to realize she might be too.

Green, I hate to break it to you, but your life is an R-rated movie for part of it. The fact that its real life makes it worse than probably watching 100,000 R-rated movies. The only consolation about your life is that it wasn't a rating WORSE than R...

Regardless they’d all seen some of the movie by “accident”. So her and Silver are thinking the same thing. And Silver, Silver lost it.

“Oh my… Sneasel put it down…”

“Hey, is it Sneasel Sakaki? You know people’s ‘mon have their last name in Sevii right?” Green jeers, “so is it “SS”, and if it is how’re we gunna tell you apart on the school rolls?”

“Sneasal’s a ‘mon she isn’t going to school. Schools stupid, I’m not going to... to stupid school.”

“Heey, another SS.”

“Arceus blast it… You’re… you’re so worthless.” And Silver’s grinning and Green is too. So tight it hurts. “Come on Snesne,” He croons his baby name for Sneasel. “Drop it.”

Cute scenes with Silver are what Green wants most right now. Understandable she would dream about him. Here is hoping her dream doesn't give way to a nightmare involving Mask, though... it probably will...

The fishy tail’s flip flipping a lot slower now. Sneasel “sticks” her tongue at them, and slowly, oh so slowly, crosses her bright red eyes.

“Drop it.” Silver stomps a foot and Blasty rolls his head up at them, curious.

The dark type bit instead, bit through the whole fish and technically dropped the tail. She swallowed the head in one gulp.

Just like a dog caught with something it isn't supposed to have lol...

“Oh ewww.” Green whined because there was fishy blood dripping down Sneasal’s chin.

“Why?” Silver moaned. “No,” Because Sneasal picked up the tail in her glittering claws. “Sneasel, no, no, I don’t want the still flopping bloody tail bit! Snesne,” And oh Sneasal’s whipped out a pair of puppy eyes that’d make a growlithe proud and Silver, sap he is, softens. “Yes, I love you. Course I do but…” And Sneasal’s approaching, tail held in claws, claws held high in an obvious offering. “And… No I don’t want you to feed me… No! Green, help!

Snea’s chasing them around Blasty by the end of it. They skip along the turtle’s shell, almost falling, never going over. Sneasel’s hopping after them on one foot to make it fair. The tarp is whipping behind them like a cloak and Sneasal decides she’s done with fair. She’s on both feet now and still bouncing, because she likes bouncing sometimes, so why not?

I love the way this is described.

And the first person she pounces is going to get that fish tail.

Silver flips her, when she pounces, shocking them both. Blasty fishes her out, and as thanks, Sne’ shares the fish with the turtle, who takes the nibble with a rumble of thanks.

Silver recalls Sneasal before she can decide to be inspired by Blasty’s thanks and try to feed them again.

Surprise ending to that mad chase!

XXX

Green wakes up at six, expecting Yellow to call her because it’s that time. When she reaches for her phone and finds nothing, no stand, no phone, she panics. She can’t find the nightstand and…

And she’d not cold, she’s hot, there are so many blankets.

Then memory sinks in and Green flops back on the bed, among holiday blankies and summer sheets and… And she presses her palms into her scrunched-up eyes. Unable to stop the crying and not really caring if they hear.

Dang, starts crying right when she wakes up. Its really bad when that is the case vs crying oneself to sleep...

The door hadn’t even been nudged, the locks still locked, no one turned the key, and the nightstand’s not disturbed. She can’t hear the soft sounds of someone taking watch on the other side, or sleeping even…

And at that moment she’d sold anything, stolen anything for… For Yellow to call, half asleep and worn. Talking to Yellow would… it’d be like being able to breathe. She needed her, needed Silver, anyone. She needed… Green fumbled at her belt and didn’t care, just threw. Nearly hit the window with the balls’ recoil and didn’t care about that either.

She got Jiggly, got lucky.

There you go Green, you have Jiggly at least!

And she’s crying and shaking and… And she smiles at Jiggly, because how can you not?

”Sing for me, please.”

And blue eyes wide and concerned, Jiggly opens her mouth, closes it, and then flutters over for cuddles. Pointedly not singing, just snuggling.

Green really shouldn’t have stolen those badges; this wouldn’t be a problem if she hadn’t… And her hands are scrolling up and down Jiggly’s crown of curly cue fur. Back and forth, round and around, until her eyes get heavy and she falls asleep hugging Jiggly tight.

Dang I was thinking Ditty was my favorite, but there is also something to be said for Jiggly's ability to be in the right place at the right time!

Closing thoughts:
This chapter seems to be a turning point. That's narratively a good thing as I feel like it gave itself adequate time to build up with the previous chapters. Good job with the timing on that by the way!

It does a great job expanding upon the atrocities of Mask and how it affects Green even now.

There were some bits that were confusing to me, but those things didn't detract too much from the overall chapter.

The humor scenes were woven in very well and helped provide contrast.

I tend to enjoy some psychological depth in characters, and this chapter did a great job exploring that and setting up for what I assume will be a break away from her parents and a quest for some kind of resolution regarding Mask.

Review:
Chapter 11: Giovanni and Green: Signals and a Meeting

Spoiler: Line by Line Reaction

She’d taken her run to the box pile, zipping and dodging about, chasing Nido and being chased, ignoring the grumbled complaints. There were more, and they were spread wider, taller, machamp and ‘kaun’s doing most of the lifting, their trainers watching on, consulting clipboards and double-checking some figure or other as the ‘mon worked. Ignoring them, and calling Nido off of a machamp, she’d playfully head-butted, then went deeper in.

Baying.

So she is messing with the Rockets again. I wonder what her motivations are for doing it though...

Also, I noticed the spacing is changed in this chapter. Honestly, either version works. I was taking out the extra spaces with my previous review to keep it from taking up as much space, so this just means less lines for me to go in and delete in the review!

Well, she couldn’t in town, by the house, noise complaints were a thing so Green’d usually let her go wild on the beach. And wasn’t going to let some Rocket Tetris game beak that routine.

The poor worker ‘mon was toweling itself off when Green padded up to it to actually apologize. Because she’d wronged him, well Nido did, and she wasn’t rude to ‘mon as a rule of thumb. The grey beast’s arms were busy, still, it watched her approach, ridged head tipped in an inquiry when she stopped beside it.

Well at least she is considerate of the mons.

“Well, I just…”

One arm, scraping sand off its legs another was cradling a water bottle that looked like it held two gallons and the last unscrewing the bottle’s lid, all while the first arm was rubbing sweat off the back of it’s neck. The display of that much multitasking made her train of thought barrel off into the lands of incoherency. Shaking her head, Green flashed the amused ‘mon a smile.

Good description of how it uses its multiple arms. Natural that it would be able to coordinate them well with multitasking. Otherwise, what would be the point in having 4 arms?

“She’s just super playful, and I’m sorry she bugged you. She didn’t scratch you, right? I got antidotes if she did.”

“Ma.” The towel was flipped at her, a dismissal and an irrelevant one at that.

At least she is offering to help it if it needs it.

More deep rumbled barks and a familiar voice sounded.

“Oi, didn’t I just kick your sorry spiny arse out of my work zone last week?”

And by the responding tone, Nido’d found her man. And was irritating the hell out of him. Good, if she tackled Archer they were golden.

I guess she is here to irritate Archer.

“Sooo…” swaying a bit, smally hoping that whoever was watching was motion sick and they were getting sick right now, Green fluttered her eyelashes at the fighting type. “Can you type? Like… like how you just did everything else, all at once?”

Not having eyebrows did not keep the smooth-skinned beast from raising an eyebrow at her Green learned. The skin bunched in the right place where a ‘brow would be. The ‘mon took a drink, red eyes squinting almost fully shut, the red edge following her though she was just standing there.

“Oh come on… you don’t get it I’m in school, you could like type twice as fast as me, you got four arms. You could do two papers at once and that… that’s... do you know how much time you’d save me?”

I doubt she is seriously asking this, so this must be how she is trying to play off the fact that she is over here again. To be fair though, it does sound like it would help get homework done much easier, though I doubt it could actually write two papers at once. Maybe a Doduo could though! One head paired with a talon. It would bring a new meaning to the hunt and peck method of typing...

Pulling the drink back, eyes wide, the machamp looked at her like she was a rabid rattata.

From somewhere there came a thud, sand was flying surely and the machamp looked at her, looked to the direction of the ruckus, each motion slow and pointed.

Fine, fine, Green got it…. Still, she could ask.

“Hey, if you ever want to do a nice indoor cushy job, I’m a trainer; I can catch something and trade with your trainer. Think of it, AC, indoor job, only gotta type a few hours a day. Weekend likely off. Holidays. And when you’re done you could go to the beach, like really go to the beach.” Twirling her hair Green sweetened the pot best she could, thinking of macho beach things to do, and listing them off. “You know, swim around, punch sharkpedos in the face, surf, and there’d be no moving boxes, no smartasses singing Tetris at you while you work-“ Because the Kaunga’s had been doing that, she’d passed two doing it when she’d run in. “So… Think about it?”

Its spelled Sharpedo rather than Sharkpedo.

This is pretty funny though how she is still trying!

Ok so tetris is a confirmed game in this fic probably with the iconic tetris music to go with it that the "Kaunga's" are singing/humming or whatever they are doing lol...

And the machamp as thinking about… something… from the furrow on it’s face. Finally, setting the drink down it pointed, first at her, then to the sound of the quieting fuss and made a sweeping motion with the towel.

“Ung, you’re no fun”.

It threw the towel at her, even though she was going. Sour Persian… no sour purugly, the machamp was as ugly as one anyway.

She might have stuck her tongue out on her way out. Making the sand attack he tossed at her mildly understandable, but only mildly.

She found Archer as he was looking for her. Hand fisted in Nido’s collar, the poison type hauled to an awkward bi-pedial stance, he shook Nido a bit then looked up to see her approaching.

“So the champion returns, how’s the tummy ache?”

Well, nice to know Giovanni was keeping his underling in the know about everything really important. Archer probably had orders to give her hell, but there was caution in his face, and something that might have been concern.

“I’m so sorry Mr. Capone.” It wasn’t subtle but the Rocket huffed, straightening his cap and nodded. “She really likes you and keeps luring me this way and… well…she’s fast.”

“I thought my foreman told you not to play around here, s’not safe, you could get lost?”

“He said something like that. But it’s been ages!” Green shook her head in mock frustration, then tipped her head, indicating the strap and the MP3 player she had to take with her every time she went out. Archer’s eyes thinned as he considered the device, perhaps recognizing the tech.

Ah so she is using the MP3 player as a way to try to break the delusion of her parents. Clever!

“An’ bein’ safe, I’m sure your folks would say it’s worth it’s weight-“

“In Silver,” Green completed the saying wrong, deliberately. This wasn’t about money, she wasn’t asking for more, and that better tell him because she couldn’t think of any other way to say it.

“Sayin’gs gold, pretty thing.”

“Silver’s prettier makes better jewelry.”

Irrelevant, natural-sounding please let it be those things.

She couldn’t see how pale she was. How her eyes were a bit too wide and set too deep. Archer considered her, green eyes thin and crafty.

I'm not really sure what Green is trying to do here. Archer is presumably unaware of Silver and his connection to Gio, so I don't understand why Green is dropping hints as if its something Archer is supposed to be able to 'get'.

“You might wanna get a new collar for your Nido, slipped loose, took me so long cuz I had to work it back on.”

He let Nido go, who once loose, settled on all fours. Trotting to Green, circling, the poison type set her snout on her trainer's thigh. Thorns spread wide, ears quivering, limbs tensed to pivot between Green and anything really.

Is Nido scared? Poor thing! Not sure why Green was ok with Nido bugging Archer when it apparently scared Nido. We know Green cares about mon in general and especially for her own, so I'm not sure what the motivation here is. Bugging Archer at that expense just doesn't seem worth it for Green to me.

Returning her ‘mon done Archer slid his hands in his pockets, and the papers in them, her papers, please let him have found them, crinkled under his thick fingers.

“Thanks, I… might do that.”

Nido snarled, either at a ‘mon or worker Green didn’t check, and Archer flicked his gaze off of her to whoever it was, voice going loud. “Oi, you wise guys, go back to work!” Softening his tone and expression a bit the Rocket flicked his gaze down to her. “Can I walk you out?”

“Please,” and he sets his arm on her shoulder, leading her away from the area he’d been working. Curious, but right now Greens’ not going to look into anything. “umm is there an exit by Mall Street? Collars, you know?”

“Course there is.” They turn a bit westerly. “How else you think we get our chow delivered out here hot?”

“Magmar delivery?” It was a ghost of her old sass and to that Archer flicked her a tight, half-smile.

Ugh I hate to say it, but the interaction with Archer just isn't doing it for me so far. I feel like there is something going on behind the scenes that I'm just not picking up on, but because I'm not picking up on it, I have a hard time caring about what's happening. Maybe its related to interactions these two have had in the past that appeared in the manga. I don't know.

Probably the most negative thing I have said so far in the reviews. I do feel a bit bad about it, but I would rather be forthcoming. Besides, that way when I say good things about other parts, it should help those moments feel better vs me just praising everything equally.

“Glassed sands are a pain in the a- rump- Rump! To dig up. Be unsafe, ya know?”

“…” And it’s pointed, he’s asking if she is and… And Green swallows, unable to get anything like a reassurance out. “So. This is going to be a bit rude?”

Archer huffs, affecting fondness with the sound. “Alright, nothin’ new.”

“Oh shut up.” And she nudges him, barely resisting to take his wallet, her hands twitch the impulse is so strong. “You heard about that domestic disturbance, earlier this month?”

“Yep, cousin Sal’s on the police force, he mentioned it.”

“Would he know the officer who did the stakeout at my place? I… Nido’s just been so naughty and I was thinking… I should say sorry, you know. She… uh… thought he was… you know that fake gym leader coming back and she bit the officer… in the a-rump?”

Again I don't understand the pretext behind what they are talking about or really what they are talking about. I'm struggling to not skim...

And yes, Green’s not being subtle in her dig, and Archer’s trying not to laugh. Clearly not having heard about the Rocket getting chomped and clearly amused by the news.

“So… if ya wanna bribe Sal to get him to pass along an apology card, you gotta know about Sal’s misses. Girl loves flowers, loves loves ‘em. But Sal’s allergic as hell, so he can’t get his own. So you get him some, wrap ‘em up good so he can’t smell ‘em, and he’ll nip whatever letter you want up to the top.”

I can't remember who Sal is. Was he mentioned in a previous chapter? Is he someone that pops up in the manga?

They pass the last two box towers and are, and if Green squints she can see past the beach and the tall buildings in the distance are probably the Mall, she’s almost a hundred percent anyways.

“Kid.” The hand squeezes her, and she looks up, and he’s looking down, humor dimmed, face serious. “Don’t come playin’ here, capisce? Really not safe for kids. Today was slow. Tomorrow might not be.”

Properly chastised Green nodded.

“I won’t.”

“Unless there’s some creep followin’ you or something. Then me an’ the boy’s can make ‘em think twice. So about those flowers… the misses, she’s a bit of a clean freak. So don’t send anything with any little dots or nothin’ unless you’re desperate and cant’ find anything else, hm?”

“No dots unless I want to cause a row, got it!” Green chuckled.

And Archer shoves her, not too rough, almost fond. “Get.”

Green goes.

XXX

Totally lost on just about everything with this entire interaction the moment Archer stepped onto the scene. Maybe its just me. I don't know. Its written with the same quality and interactions of the rest, I just didn't care about almost anything they were talking about or doing. A Rhydon could fall out of the sky and land on Archer and I would consider it a plus to the narrative at this point...

I'm sure the rest of the chapter will be great as usual though.

Giovanni was working from within his lavish office attached to the Indigo Plateau. Had been there all day despite not wanting to be.

Oh thank goodness! A character that is incapable of being boring!(seriously) Uncle G, you are a sight for sore eyes!

But his ties to the league had to seem legitimate; hence he had to put a sincere effort in from time to time.

Today was one of those days. The “luxury” Lance had insisted that working League members have, was a private office he never visited. One with stand-by staff, all so that a gym leader could dedicate their full energies to their gyms, League meetings, and training.

This gives us a glimpse into the things Gio does to hold onto his power and influence. Cool to see!

Normally Giovanni had found the staff an irritant. His interactions with Lance were abrupt, to the point, and normally required little more than a signature and five minutes. He’d nip in, get out, and they’d not be summoned.

Most had no clue what he looked like, which was how the Rocket liked it.

Today was not meant to be like any other day. His staff had sent watchmen over the league doors, the second he’d walked in they’d been a swarm of yowling, growlithe. Their whines and whimpers were for their lively hoods. And they’d begged assurances that he wasn’t going to fire them, some of the younger going down on their hands and knees to properly grovel.

Alright, I'm curious. How will Gio respond to this?

Clearly, the dissolution of the elite four was having some unique trickle-down effects on the plateau staff.

Regardless this bowing and scraping was not conducive to getting his errand done, unobserved.

On the site of such a pathetic ambush, surrounded by their hopeful faces, he’d almost assured them, one and all, that they were being sacked.

Almost.

Sounds like its their lucky day!

But that’d of caused a worse scene. A need to call security. He was so crowded he’d have to claw out a path to the front door, or more likely break a window, to get enough room to summon something, anything… Even Beedrill would have issues and the bug was not meant for crowd control of his magnitude…

And he was half convinced some of them were not his employees, he recalled one of the loudest whiners hanging on Agatha’s arm at once conference and…

I believe you meant "one conference" not once.

Wow though, there are a ton of people in there. Good job describing it. Now I get the feeling its like a school hallway a minute after the bell rings...

And he couldn’t quite risk sullying his philanthropic front by being seen as heartless in public.

Though it set his teeth on edge, attention was not what he wanted. This mission was clearly not going to go how he wanted it so he let go of his expectations to deal with the disaster before him.

He’d demanded his Head Servant be summoned and sent the rest of the mob pointless errands. Mainly a microscopic deep clean of his office.

I'm ok with this outcome. I didn't really want to see Gio lay off a bunch of people, so I'm glad the narrative had a sufficient excuse for him not to do that.

This was ridiculous, the man’s title was a holdover for an archaic position, and it was too much considering Giovanni had two rooms he used. If he had to inventory everything he used he could tab on the view over a garden he’d occasionally look over. Mainly to scoff at the rampant greenery, that was a bleed over from Erika’s office next door.

Nice detail regarding Erika.

This whole office set up also helps portray the importance of gym leaders. Good information to have!

He needed five people for cleaning, maybe two gardeners for the whole spread. Though if he were given free leash he’d order the staff to rip out everything living and put down a nice rock garden and then he’d of fire'd them after. But Lance technically ran everything, and technically Lance wasn’t a wanted criminal.

Just wanted for questioning.

So, unless Giovanni took over Kanto’s league, he could not make any sweeping changes. Which had led to a mob of people living in perpetual terror of unemployment which in turn led to… this ambush. Him losing a day’s meaningful labor.

Suffice to say Giovanni Sakaki was not a happy man.

Yet another example of how he can utilize restraint when needed.

Instead of the reasonable count of say six people max, there were thirty here, perhaps more, mewling about their jobs. Poking in to ask if he wanted anything and hanging onto his coattails like a nest of joltiks smelling a ten pack of batteries.

Disgusting.

Makes sense he would see them this way. He IS still a mob boss after all.

The Rocket resigned himself to scouting out Lance’s quarters at a later date and working on legitimate League affairs until he could get this madhouse in order.

So when he’d dismissed the workers (temporarily, he’d had to tag on, his word choice near setting them into a panic) after they were done cleaning his offices to a level they looked new Giovanni had hauled his Head Servant into his office and made the man pick out three staff. A go-fer, a gardener, and someone with a spread of talents for any odd jobs that might arise. All three had to be discrete. He’d tolerate no media leaks, and if any dared…

Tone and a glower filled in the blanks nicely.

This small bit here says what it needs. No need to expand upon it. As I have come to expect for any section involving Gio.

Then he told the man to give him all the staffs’ files.

He’d cull through this mess, pick those with the appropriate ties to Rocket, and send the rest to Surge, Sabrina, and Koga’s offices.

And any firings that occurred would be after their transfer, thus sparing his image.

Ah! Interesting solution to the problem.

And the Head Servant was an elderly man, with more wit than his underlings, and perhaps some sympathies for said underlings. Perhaps he saw the writing on the wall or was a bit emotional per some subtle mental decline. Regardless when the man tried to wheedle and charm a heart of stone, touting about this ones’ skills in cleaning, that souls cooking, Giovanni enunciated his demand in crystal clear language.

He would do his personal assessment alone, without help.

Well, that's not the greatest thing to hear from the servant's position!

And it was more to shut the man up than anything that he’d sent the Head Servant off to order one of the “best cooks in Kanto” to put “something together”.

Something tells me the motivation will be very high to get that right for Gio!

He’d been mildly impressed by the spread when it comes, though, like the Persian he was occasionally depicted on the media, he was not overt in his surprise or pleasure. Dismissing both Head and cook and lackey that’d lay the spread out with a gesture he’d taken a break from his work to eat. Staff members neatly sorted, their files folded up, and to be delivered to their appropriate new Head of Houses to start their culling. And while eating, he’d retrieved one of the files. He’d decided to keep four of the staff on hand instead of three, the woman’s cooking, (the Head’s granddaughter, reading of her files confirmed) was skilled enough to have earned some leniency.

I believe you meant to have this with the bold word I added in: "like the Persian he was occasionally depicted as on the media"

Hard to turn down good food!

Also, she was unencumbered with any ties that’d led her to be used in assassination or power plays or would be once Archer had paid her and her family a little visit.

Why is it every time Archer is mentioned nothing makes sense? I read this line over multiple times and I'm just not getting it. Is this saying someone in her family had ties to assassination or power plays and that Archer will be murdering said person to 'un-encumber' her with any ties to it?

Speaking of Archer, the man came in after he’d finished eating. Timing impeccable as always. He’d just set his utensils aside when the Executive had rapped on his door.

Ok so he is an executive. Lets see where this goes.

Dressed in a spare uniform of the soon to be ousted staff, the man had bowed and shunt himself to one side while Giovanni called in the real workers. One of the go-fers to sweep up the dinner service, another to take a note to the Head Servant informing him to reach out to all League associates that were on Giovanni’s housekeeping staff and inform them they were on temporary leave, starting immediately. An agent from Viridian Co’ would be in contact to inform them of their new locations and duties, and he’d need the keys of the office left at the front desk, he’d close up shop, personally, when he was ready to go.

Ok that wraps up the plot involving the excess staff. Now tell me what Archer is doing!

One finger atop the two glasses kept the staff from whisking them away, and the Rocket waited until the mareep was out the door, each preoccupied with their own errands and shock, never noting their “newest” member. Once the door shut he gestured for Archer to sit across from him. Filling the cups while his subordinate settled, watching the thick smoky Hoenn wine slosh and sizzle into place. Archer waited until his Boss had taken the first draw before indulging his own, as was proper, though the man grimaced at the flavor.

“How’s Sevii?”

“Hot.” The man grunted, setting the glass aside, looking at the fluid with a bitter look. He hated dry wines but it went so well with Giovanni’s repast he’d just have to endure. “And ripe for gutting.”

It was the best news Giovanni’d gotten all day.

Since Gio is involved here I can assume its something interesting.

After taking a moment to loose one of Archer’s ghastly to do a sweep for anything living and drive whatever if found out of the building both men settled and spoke business.

Nifty use for a ghost Pokemon!

Archer reported of his feelers tightening their hold in the varied small business that’d either been prone to corruption or held to old familia loyalties and were weary of miming the social niceties the League and Governments slapped down on them. The tariffs and fines by merely being related to old Associates and outed Executives of the previous Rocket elite surely chaffed at the surviving family members.

Well, that’s what you got for failing at an insurgency.

While he’d leave those loyal to Carr to rot or speed off their demises in due time, he’d let Archer make contact with the familiias who’d been loyal to him and been betrayed by Carr’s power plays. Those were fanatically loyal and willing to take risks, made lean by desperation and grudges, those he’d sweep into Sevii’s Rocket branch with open arms and set up as executives if they survived the training process.

Ok so he is cleaning house not only for league stuff but for Team Rocket as well. If he is sending loyal ones to Sevii though, that must mean he has something big planned for that region. I suppose that has to do with the tetris boxes (shipping containers I would assume?) from the previous chapters.

“About your… acquisition project.”

None of them called Silver by name, Giovanni’d of killed them for the offense, all the better to keep him out of the police crosshairs if things went bad. Worse.

Archer dug out a file from his vest, while the file was tidy the contents were not. Clippings and loose papers, one poking out and marked with a childish hand. That mess was spread over Giovanni’s desk, sorted by Archer’s calloused hands.

Ok so he DOES trust Archer with knowledge of Silver apparently. That helps make the previous section make a little more sense at least.

Giovanni suddenly wanted a stiffer drink than the one before him, but there’d been nothing stronger in the League stores.

“I thought we had banned Petrol from paperwork.”

“Yes sir, we have. Would you believe the br- Green’s handwriting’s worse?”

Hmm so he is holding back calling her a brat it seems. That must mean he is aware that Giovanni will not tolerate it. Yet another example of Gio having a soft spot for Green.

Well, ice and nerve damage had to show somewhere. Giovanni set his unfinished drink aside despite the temptation and suspicion this was going to be bad news.

And it was.

Ok, the narration has my attention.

Giovanni considered the rather ratty papers. The first, a crossword. Certain letters were done in black ink instead of blue, it hadn’t taken long to decode the message and it’d been short and alarming.

Do no call, no text, tracked. And a bit redundant had been the ad clipped and folded inside the crossword. A pseudo mp3 player with a rather… fetching… flower pattern that did little to hide the recording apparatus at its center. Still, despite the redundancy, knowing how was of some use, so he’d not reprimand Green for it later down the line.

“She had it on her, this morning sir. She came by the docking spot and…” Archer lifted a hand, tipping it side to side as if weighing something on his fingers. “She daren’t take it off. Was real guarded. Jumpy.”

Ok so it wasn't to show her parents the activities of the Rockets. It was to show Archer -and by extension Gio- that she was being tracked.

Interesting.

Compiling Green’s warning with Yellow’s rather blunt report that ended with the line, “Green’s parents are insane, I think she’s going to bolt.”

Well, it led Giovanni to draw some rather unfortunate conclusions.

His assets, towards his personal retrieval project, were being tinkered with.

I'm guessing this will now be eliciting a not-so-friendly response from Gio to Green's parents now.

While Yellow’s irritants were misplaced members of Flare and easily disposed of, he’d done so personally without alerting the girl to the issue or bodies, Green’s situation was thornier. It wasn’t the first time a Rocket’s parents had been a thorn in his side, and normally he’d manipulated circumstance to isolate the asset and cull the troublesome branches of the family tree away from a promising recruit. Archer had been one.

Oh wow! That's the first bit of backstory about Archer I think so far.

But this was the first time the issue had been born of self-inflicted, bloody-minded, stupidity.

A first, for one and all.

Hmm so he considers Green to be taking stuff she shouldn't be taking. I think Green's motivation is that she doesn't want to lose her parents, so it puts her in an impossible situation that no one her age should have to be in.

He rose his glass a mute toast, to firsts then, then finished his glass in one pass. Indulgence done he went back to working at the variables.

Regardless of their reasons Green’s parents were going a long way in slowing down the reacquisition of Silver, a deadly place to be.

Yep, looks like this will be escalating things.

While letting the boy out of his sight had been his mistake it’d been one born of an unfortunate coagulation of a lack of information, being near death, and having to drop everything to clean house so Kanto and Johto wouldn’t descend into utter anarchy.

When the dust cleared and he’d seen the dexholders at each other’s throats he’d taken pause, and then left the moralists to quibble over morals.

I like the way this is worded. Helps you to see things from Gio's perspective better.

Giovanni backtracked incidents to insanities and found Yellow at the end of one, particularly bizarre investigation. She’d seemed a smart girl, having washed her hands of… how had Green dubbed them… the goodie squad? Regardless, Yellow was a quiet girl, enamored with spirituality and the Forrest, both easy things to appeal to. Certain promises and protections shared between “friends of friends” -as she’d assumed her comradery towards Silver had earned her favors- she’d reached him out to him and proceeded to sell herself so cheap Giovanni’d not have the heart to scalp her further.

And so he’d gotten his first ally.

I like seeing how Gio has limits to how much he is willing to exploit someone. Important distinctions to make.

It was her report he went through, with a grimace and need for a stronger drink that he wouldn’t indulge. Because she was writing him as a “pen pal” to forward what she saw and heard. It was a quaint childish communication that was peppered with detailed drawings. This week’s missive was laced with Weedles. Perhaps in an effort to soften the displeasure her notes, which were Green’s calls to her paraphrased, would rise in him.

Aww Yellow! 🥰

Finishing with Yellow’s papers he considered the things of Green that Archer had given him, then took up the man’s much more professional report. Flipping through he flicked his gaze up, amused, and his underling was again weighing something on his fingers when Giovanni came to the end of Archer's report.

“I wouldn’t take her totally out of consideration, all things considered.” Archer defended his decision with surprising warmth.

“Personal history considered?”

She had helped drop a building on them, after all.

“Disillusionment’s pretty useful,” Archer noted. “Hell, worked with me. I think things are heading to a boiling part.”

Ah, so it looks like Archer is defending Green as an asset to Gio.

Should be 'boiling point' not part.

Giovanni considered that then nodded. “No forced pickup.” He ruled.

Archer hummed. “If she comes back again, spite bein’ told not too?”

“Play it by ear.”

“Sir.” Lifting his glass Archer took a draw, and nearly choked as the taste kicked in.

Yellow had led to Green. And Green, had been a sanctuary, content to house Silver. Giovanni’d been ready to approach, setting a flight to Sevii, and two days before he was to leave, his affairs set in place to run without him for as long as need be…

Ah there we go, so he WILL be going back to Sevii now.

Fucking Lysander decided to get uppity and try to shake Kanto and Johto’s security. Taking a chunk out of Kanto’s electronic markets, seeding Flare in his businesses and that’d been a disaster that’d take a month to begin to tackle.

And it wasn’t sorted, just at a standstill, because Lysander was a Mandibuzz on a mission and Giovanni’s Region was the dying carrion that caught Lysandre’s eye.

Good to see how he considers Lysandre. Also interesting to get a little info on the rivalry between them.

Giovanni just had to trust his son’s networking to hold him afloat for awhile longer. And Silver had been well. Happy even.

Until certain insanities had crept into the picture in the form of denial.

Silver was a smart boy. He’d seen the dangers of his present circumstance and gotten himself out.

Green, unfortunately per understandable attachments, had not.

Gio appears to be flip flopping here. At one moment it is stupidity and another its 'understandable attachments'. I think its ok to flip flop on it though. Its both frustrating and understandable at the same time.

And that was a nightmare in itself because per Yellow, Silver and Green were inseparable. Silver’s fury and choice of more destructive “pranks” once given his own head and no other around him to serve as a moral chain had been leveled at the people who’d hurt Green, not himself. Giovanni’s “prank” had been an afterthought, perhaps not the first, but the second, definitely.

Oh so Gio is realizing how much Green means to Silver. That by extension forces him to care more about Green. I like how this works!

And while that was promising, a hinting that forgiveness might be in the cards… It was still worrying considering how Sevii was falling apart… at least on a personal level.

He really needed to get things in hand. Excise all human affairs then deal with business. A good arson and shooting with all the right patsy are in place could advance Rocket’s goals and pin the crimes on Flare. He’d have to remember to flag Viridian CO’s humanitarian branches to be prepped to offer what support they could, it’d be a good way to seed Rocket among the island's civilian population and reinforced Archer’s work.

Good! I want to see Gio drive out Flare!

Rockets taking over Sevii also seems to be a nod to FireRed/LeafGreen.

I still have no idea what Archer's work is though.

Sensing the meeting was winding down, Archer tilted his head, “Orders, sir?”

“Prepare to return to Sevii, swap your traditional intimidation team for a more balanced spread, and round up six of our cleaner agents. Wait at the international teleport station R1. I’ll meet you there in,” consulting his wristwatch, Giovanni weighed responsibilities to needs. “ Three hours.”

“Sir.” And with a salute Archer stood, moving to sweep up the papers until Giovanni made a noise. The Rocket subordinate froze, fingers barely brushing the papers.

“Leave that.”

After all, Giovanni’d had something of a scrapbook going, might as well add to it.

Aww a scrap book.

Closing thoughts:

Ok so this chapter had some good and bad to it and it prevents me from being as positive as I would like to be. There was still more good than bad though.

I'll start with the bad: Green's coversation with Archer was too hard to follow and made for a boring read. It made this chapter the weakest in the fic thus far but with a silver lining that everything else in the fic has been significantly better than this to read so far. The way the camera shackled what Green could and could not say and do was not doing the narrative any favors here. I think if Green offered some thoughts in between the dialogue to explain the interaction and where things were at, it would go a long way in holding the readers attention. Subtlty can be good, but it has too much here, at least for me.

As for the good, I thought Green's interaction with the Machamp was amusing.

I appreciated the further insight into Gio & Team Rocket. A lot of great details here.

It was also good that it expanded on Archer as a character and his role in things since I assume he will be a recurring character at this point.

I also want to point out that the spelling and wording errors were minimal and the overall writing style continued to be easy to read.

Review:
Chapter 12: Green: Shattering Part One

Spoiler: Line by Line Reaction

AN: Trigger warning, discussed child abuse, assault, Giovanni triggers Green, and the fall out leaves them both at each other throats.

Based on these warnings, some massive drama is about to go down here...

Green’d been walking ditty,

So it turns out ditty is not the greatest thing to casually read as I had to do a double take thinking it said 'dirty'. this can be pretty much totally fixed just by capitalizing 'ditty'.

who kept changing shape as they went down the street. Starting as a four-legged rattata, drifting to two-legged bunny ‘mon Green didn’t recognize, then at a stoplight shimmering into a slugma, or rather something slugma shaped. Ditty wasn’t making the body flame, thank goodness, but the semi-fluid nature of the form made the leash ride up. It stopped when it covered Ditty’s eyes.

Wow Ditty is all over the place today!

Once Green pulled it off of him he swirled into the form of a mini spoink and bounced up at her, snout twisted into a too-wide grin.

He was so going to give her trouble getting this thing back on, and he did, the little pain.

I wonder what is causing Ditty to get all spastic though? Sherbert withdrawal perhaps?

“Come on.-” Ditty bounced a bit to the right, making Green miss wrapping him up in the leash. “I know-” that high jump was deliberate. “-You don’t need to keep-” Ditty spun in place, it was a nice triple axel- “ t’ keep jumping, you’re just-” a small hop, Green swept up the ditto into a hug, snapping the leash back on. “-showing off.”

Very bouncy section! I found myself nodding up and down as I read!

Ditty’s game led to Green missing the light turn, two light turns, still, he has bound up again, and bounced across the street at the next turn gamely enough.

“Getting you that Natural ‘mon geographic subscription for the TV was a mistake.”

Ah, Ditty has been having fun now that it knows what lots of other things look like! Cute scene.

Ditty’d gotten really creative since he’d started binged on the series, and gotten her lectured until she’d finally just let him get caught. The first time he’d popped out of his ball and slithered out the room she’d woken up, sleeping lighter than light, and followed him to the tv, where he’d swiped the remote and after some rolling around with it his plasma body had gotten it on and to the right station… And amused, she’d joined him. Watching until she drifted, him curled on her side, beady eyes wide at all the ‘mon capering about. The second time he’d popped out and woken her up, and started to lead her down the stairs… Well, Green’d recalled him with a firm, “no not tonight”, and thought that’d been that.

This is so full of detail and life. I don't think I've seen any Ditty content I didn't like so far!

Until a week later she’d been scolded about not talking to Mum and Da about her insomnia… And shocked she’d just blurted out the truth, it was Dit’ and they’d given her a long look and she’d been scolded for lying and…

That's what really sucks sometimes. You tell the truth and punished for it like you had lied...

And Green’d let it drop, already resigned to the fact that the truth wasn’t going to get her anywhere and let them think what they wanted..

Unless she is going to use her mon to battle them, there is really nothing else she could do here... Poor Green.

Then Da’d gone to the bathroom, only to find Ditty watching the program. The ‘mon was settled in front of the TV, a snack bag of his treats open at his side, munching as ‘mon scampered across the screen. Mirroring the bulbasaur in the screen, or rather a vine and bulb, Ditty was digging out his treat with a repurposed vinewhip attack, watching ‘mon of the rainforests, Green’s earbuds synced to the TV and sunk into his plasma so he could listen without getting caught.

At three in the morning.

That’d gone well.

You go Ditty! Now if only you had a tub of sherbet for it instead of that boring ol treat bag!

Suffice to say Green got more time walking Nido than Ditty since it was the only way Mum and Da’ could think about “grounding” him. And since they weren’t trainers (and weren’t listening to her about anything now) they didn’t realize that keeping him in, letting him get antsy without an outlet, was bad.

Nooo! Poor Ditty! 😭

And it’d been bad. Grounding was taken up as a challenge.

He’d shimmied into Mum’s purse and ridden to her work with her twice, only getting caught when he’d mimicked her phone and she’d picked him up to make a call.

🤣 This stuff with Ditty is some pure gold!

After that, and a scolding from Mum he made himself a floral sticker on Da’ suitcase, and Da’ hadn’t noticed and took Ditty to work. For the whole day. And Da had crazy long hours. Longer than Mums. Come noon, Ditty’d decided he was as hungry as a snorlax, and slithered up onto Da’s desk and ate all his candies and was making a good dent on Da’s bowl that Green guessed tasted a little like candy and…

Wait, so Ditty wasn't bothered by random sudden mysterious temperature changes in Da's new office?! Maybe uncle G had a soft spot for Ditty?

This is why you should never ground Ditty lol...

And Da’d come back from a meeting to find half a bowl missing and Ditty heading out (likely looking for the employee breakroom for more sweets).

Green’d been pulled out of school for that one, and while missing math had been nice the lecture about “responsible ‘mon ownership” wasn’t.

What is Green really supposed to do though? She wasn't the one who grounded Ditty. Just another example of how much punishment Green is willing to take to have parents.

“He’s got to get out...” Green’d countered. “He’s not stupid. If you’d of phrased it like… hey don’t stay up late watching TV you’ll keep people up and that’s mean, he wouldn’t. Heck, he realized that on his own and got my earbuds, you could have found a different way but if you keep him in his ball all the time, without battling, he’s going to take himself out and do things.”

100% Agree with Green here. Great idea for this whole thing with Ditty though. So many good examples of Greens parents thinking they are doing proper parenting when they aren't.

It’s what ‘mon did. It’s why Horsea and Blasty got long times swimming every day. Why Nido got her runs. And why Green had to let her out at night for solo runs even though that wasn’t legal, because without battling a jog a day wasn’t enough.

I love the realism here about the responsibilities of mon ownership. Helps with the immersion.

But as time went on and Green was in and in more and her punishment dragged on (and was added to) well it wasn’t only Green that got stir crazy.

“They aren’t stupid, and they need time doing things. If I could just keep them in a battle circuit, even twice a week, I’m sure that’d keep them happier.” And Ditty was proving it, lighting up at her feet and squirming a little happy dance at the idea…

Considering what we have seen from her parents so far, the answer will undoubtedly be 'no'.

“No.” Mum snapped.

They might mean well, but it would be so unbelievably frustrating to live with parents like these...

“Green, sweetie, I think they need to get used to this, that you need to get used to this… This isn’t like living on the road, they aren’t the center of your world anymore and you aren’t there’s… You need to focus on… on academia…. socializing… the important things… Not your pets.”

If they were pets, you would have a point but there is an elephant in the room and you are totally blind to it...

They weren’t her pets, they were her team. How couldn’t they see that?

If Green displayed what she could do, it would probably just end up frightening her parents... I think she is going to have to do that though. If she doesn't make them listen they just aren't going to... sad as that is.

“Not without a leash and collar,” Mum added, turning, thinking that she’d stay in perhaps, that it was done.

That’d been their newest excuse, having somehow “heard” about Nido breaking leash and harassing someone, her whole team needed to be leashed when out of the house at all times.

Shatter it. I'm ready to see it shatter. Their world-view.

But Green wasn’t without a workaround. She bolted to her room and came down with Nido’s old, nidoran collar and Ditty cottoned on, turning into a pink on pink stripped girl ‘ran without being asked.

“Guess I get to take my pet for a walk after all, huh?”

“Tone.” Da’ barked.

They just keep on pushing...

And really, want scary, get yelled at by a Rocket, they had guns and little qualms about using them.

I 'want' here supposed to be 'wasn't'?

Yeah... Green, at least get into it with them verbally or something, come-on!

“Right,” Green snipped. “So I’ll take Ditty for a walk now, so doesn’t act up then, huh? Just to make your lives easier?”

“I expect you to come home with a better attitude young lady.” Da warned, “and don’t forget-”

“Yeah yeah I won’t forget your bloody tracking device.”

Enough with the tracking... I think if I were Green, I would have exploded by now.

She’d “found out” about it yesterday, looking it up on the school computer, and was using that “discovery’” to get some venting in.

Glad to see she can get SOME kind of hit in on them!

“I’m half a mind to have you stay in, young lady.” Mum chimed in.

“You know,” Green snapped the dammed thing on, hoping the roughness would break it. Futile, but it was a hope. “Mask used to stick us with these things under out masks, threatened to rip our faces off if we took them off. Really, this thing brings back all those fun fuzzy memories.”

But they still don't believe Mask was real and thus her comment falls on deaf ears...

Ditty was clipped into his body leash and Green booked it before either one of her parents could think of anything to say or to stop her.

So… if Ditty was being a bit bad as they walked… He’d been an angel in waiting until they were out of sight to start playing. So Green wasn’t going to complain.

Makes sense why Ditty is wigging out now.

They passed another crosswalk; the park was two more blocks, and the sidewalk reasonably light on traffic.

“Bet you can’t do a ponyta with a rainbow mane.”

Ditty’s black eyes rolled up to her, and a shiver told Green, it was on.

XX

A great place to scene swap. Approved!

When a Persian whipped in front of her, a white blur that swept an inch in front of her chest, Green didn’t need top fake shock for the camera.

top should be 'to'

Persian huh. Sounds like Uncle G came to town.

She jumped back, one hand snapping to her belt over Nido’s pokeball, Ditty recoiling out of his “walking” form to assume his amorphous norm so he could shift easily into anything she commanded. A pat of her free hand confirmed that her wallet was still with her, and the assumption, that the cat’s Thief missed, was felled when the cat turned.

Ooo looks like things are getting mon battle ready!

Ringed by fangs was Green’s “shiny” that’d inspired the theft. And once the surprise came and went, Green had to think a bit about how hard she wanted to go after the tracker.

Because, really, she didn’t want it. And trapping the cat in a pincer move to pick a fight over the MP3 player that wasn’t wasn’t really on Green’s to-do list right then.

I mean, Persian stealing the tracker isn't your fault, Green. Seems like a no problem kind of thing...

Tail up, fangs glinting, the cat scrunched its eyes at her, and with a pur turned down a side street Green’d never bothered taking before. Looking back, with a flip of its tail, the cat took a left, into an alley...

And Green should probably try to get it back, her conscious niggled her. It’d likely cost a lot. But it was more to see where the overly familiar cat was going that inspired Green to trot after the feline. Holstering Nido’s pokeball, pulling the leash up and wrapping it around her arm, Green followed, Ditty making a passable facsimile of Chu’chu at her feet and taking the lead.

Yeah I could see how following it would be interesting. Since the tracker is now gone, why not?

“Purt?” The cat poked its head around the corner, head tilted…

This… probably didn’t look good if someone was looking at the footage right now… But as she followed Green sorta hoped her parents had bigger things to do than watch every second of her walk.

should be comma after followed.

I would be past caring by now if I were Green.

Otherwise, the talk when she got home was going to be uglier than the talk she’d run out on.

XXX

Well that line is kind of a spoiler. Alright lets see what happens then!

She lost the cat at a dead end. It’s leapt from ground to brick wall that marked the alley’s end, spinning about on white paws it aligned with a fire escape and was up and out.

This sentence is odd, I recommend "It leapt from the ground to the brick wall that marked the ally's end, spinning about on it's white paws, it aligned with a fire escape, and was up and out."

Ok so camera footage is now ended since Persian is now gone.

Green followed its flight across the roof with her eyes until she couldn’t see it anymore.

And while she could have Jiggly go up, finish the chase…

She really didn’t want to, so she didn’t.

And I don't blame her one bit for not feeling like using the power of her mons to chase it.

“Welp that went well.”

I guess Green said this but I was expecting another person to show up so I had a hard time getting it.

The fake chu’ at her feet “ditto”ed at her, then flicked an ear…

What is a 'chu'? Is she talking about a Pikachu? That seems to be the case.

Near the alley’s mouth, a door opened, it had a jingling bell and everything.

“That’s not creepy, at all…”

I swear Uncle G can be so dramatic sometimes...

Motion by the door and Green had Nido’s pokeball in hand, it wasn’t a long wait.

I think you probably meant to have a period after 'hand' and start a new sentence after.

She lowered the ball though, once she could make out who had settled in the door frame her lips quirked despite herself. She didn’t holster Nido but she wasn’t prepped to throw instantly anymore.

It’d have to be an acceptable middle ground, and perhaps it was accepted because Giovanni tipped his hat at her in acknowledgment then stepped into the depths of the brick building, door left open in obvious invitation.

Well as far as Green's concerned, Gio did her a favor by getting rid of the tracking device. Good that she is smart enough to not holster Nido though.

“You know I can think of nine horror movies that start like this.”

The wind kicked up, making the bell dingle, the door remained open, possibly braced. Settling her hat Green tipped a look down to Ditty. He looked up at her, long ears twitching.

Good way to try to make it seem ominous though.

“Probably should change into something else, Dit’.” She suggested, then, taking a deep breath followed the Rocket into the building.

XXX

Ah, because Uncle G is not a fan of Pikachu lol... 😅

The inside was a bit anticlimactic. The brick of the alley was clearly inspired by the interior walls. There were large ovens, shut and cold, hooks that’d likely held pots and pans had nothing on them, and despite being clearly abandoned the place was reasonably clean. A sunk-in long table, by the ovens, was scrubbed immaculate, it’s white and black tiles nearly reflective. Giovanni was standing by the table, hatless, and one of those hooks on the wall wasn’t as empty as its peers. The hook by a long-abandoned sink was holding his hat and long coat, which understandable considering Sevii was hot this time of year. And even though this room, abandoned kitchen of an eatery, was shadowed, the windows were thin slits which made the room breezeless and the airtight.

Green couldn’t imagine the inferno when everything was up and running.

Interesting venue.

“Nine.” Just in case he hadn’t heard her, because his confusion would have been a treat.

He raised an eyebrow, neither confirming nor denying what he’d heard. Just flicking a glance at her hat, and wow, old fashioned much? Still she did pull it off and pop it over the doorknob behind her.

Nine what? Old fashioned how? Popped her hat over the doorknob? I guess that was easier than putting it on a hook.

“So was this an evil Rocket Pizzeria or something?”

“You look like hell.”

Seems amicable enough so far...

“Rude.” Just like Silver, rude in Silver’s way. She wanted to tell him to knock it off. Not act like Silver. She didn’t need that ghost. Because if he didn’t stop it she was so tired she might start crying. And if she did it was his fault and she’d make his wardrobe pay for it.

Pay for it how? By mon blasting Gio? By crying into this clothes as he hugs you? So many directions this could be taken... Unlikely she would allow him to hug her though considering she had not holstered Nido. I'll go with that she was thinking of hitting him with Blasty unless proven otherwise.

Still, crying in front of him would probably bring the two of them closer.

Claws clicking on tile made Green look down. Ditty made his choice, a reasonable facsimile of Nido before she’d evolved. Bending down Green scooped the pink-tinged ‘mon against her. Going deeper into the room until she was at an empty stool by the kitchen island. She settled into it, legs crossed, skirt adjusted, and letting Dit’ have her lap.

Nice to see she can relax enough to sit.

Yeah right. Green huffed but folded. “He sent a message to my phone. My old phone, since I can’t use my new one without getting caught. It was a picture.” She looked down, twiddling Ditto’s pink, pointed ears. They were cold and a bit squishy. A real ‘ran’s ears were hot, part of their temperature regulation.

Nice detail richness with Ditty. Ditty makes everything better. So does Jiggly. Blasty does when stuff needs blasting.

And she heard him sit the stool creaking under his weight. “It was a selfie, he used it to flip my parents off.”

Somehow, I'm not upset about that.

Giovanni’s lips kicked up, before his face smoothed into familiar no tell lines.

Yep, even Gio can't resist the amusement.

Rather amused by his minimal reaction Green twitched a foot, gently so it wouldn’t jar Ditty. “You know most parents freak out when they hear their kids flip off adults.”

“Ask me again, what my job is?”

Yeah... certainly tracks.

That was a trick question. He was wearing his R insignia over his heart and everything. Still Green’d bite, appreciating the deflection.

“Making my Dad’s new job a living hell?”

“No, that’s a hobby.”

Green snorted. “Rich people have odd hobbies.”

It sounds like a rather fun hobby too from Gio's perspective!

“Hn.” Not quite a word, perhaps a bit off riposte, Green wasn’t sure, taking a breath, letting it out slow, Giovanni met her eyes. “It didn’t make the news, but Silver’s been busy. Did you hear about the “fence malfunction?” at the Tauros holding pens?”

Silver is really laying into Oak!

Green shook her head. “Haven’t been watching Pallet’s news, things have been… bad at home.” She’d been banned from news outlets because she was taking too much enjoyment from it. Clearly, groundings were about being bored out of your mind instead of learning things.

Funny how that works sometimes...

Red’d done a number on Giovanni’s old gym and in typical fat cat fashion, Giovanni’d started constructing a new gym, instead of fixing the old.

Well when you have THAT much money. Why not?

In a show of further laziness, he’d donated the grounds of his old building to the public so he wouldn’t have to deal with it.

Sounds kind of smart actually, if he was gunning for minimal aggravation!

And in Rocket fashion the new gym was on the edge of Viridian, giving him an easy escape route into the forest if Red decided to temper tantrum through the building again.

A reasonable precaution given past events lol...

For the sake of not breaking down, the peace Green decided not to bring it up her thoughts.

comma should move from after 'down' to 'peace'

“I wouldn’t trust whatever source gave you that information again, it’s compromised.” Running a hand over his hair Giovanni made an irritated noise. “Hail’d of been easier. Silver set up slush traps for the construction crew and stole their tools. Froze them into a block of ice. And of course, there were snowmen about. A virtual army of them. This snowman thing,” he waved a hand, a lazy half-circle as if encapsulating Silver’s most manic hobby. “Is this something he normally does, or a new thing?”

Nice description on his hand motion there!

Green tapped her foot against the air, thinking.

“Silver does like to make snowmen. Snea’ taught him when he was really little and it’s the only type of play he could do. We didn’t have toys or anything.” And remembering, Mask standing over them, demanding they play, and Silver not recognizing any of the toys… Green tucked her arms over her chest, checking a shiver. “Mask, didn’t like us doing anything kiddie unless it was for a job… But in their cell, Sneasel and Silver would make snowmen to break the rules. He’d make them when he was stressed, or bored, or lonely or… Well, all the time really.” Green smirked, remembering one time when Silver’s made a literal army of ankle-high snow blobs.

Gives some additional detail (or maybe reminder to manga readers?) to Silver's backstory. Also the sharing of this kind of information helps to further establish the rapport between Gio and Green.

Karen’d nearly broken her neck when trying to break into Sil’s cell and discovered the floor was not as flat or firm as expected. She’d tripped bad and managed to stab herself by accident. It’d been the funniest thing ever, and even Silver’d found it funny after the scare of being woke up like that faded.

I wonder why Karen did that...

“He’s a bit weird.” Green confided, in tones suiting telling someone their loved one had died.

“Noted.” Tapping a finger on the tabletop, Giovanni seemed to be weighing something, or counting something, and not liking the tally.

Given the chapter warnings this seems ominous...

“- and when setting up a trap noticed Professor’s computer was on. He was processing a revocation of a trainer’s license, specifically yours. Your parents put in for the request and he was the governing body requested to process it.”

Oh wow. This is a huge line. I see this going 1 of 2 ways:

1. Gio is telling the truth. Her parents are trying to revoke her trainer license.
Seems a bit weird though because you would think they would have done that long ago. On the other hand, her mons could easily be viewed by them as getting in the way.

2. Gio is lying.
He is lying in order to try to get Green to oppose her parents. Given the set up of this chapter so far, I think option 1 is more likely.

Green went pale, eyes wide, remembering Mum’s and Da’s complaints in a very different light. Clearly, adjustment wasn’t a thing to aim for, there wasn’t going to be an “integration” of her old life and present. She hadn’t known. Hadn’t guessed they’d do this, ever.

And the fact that they dared….

As if they haven't betrayed her enough already. Now its outright betrayal. Its ok though. Its all in the name of good parenting...

“Silver was able to override key passages and luckily remembered Karen’s full name as well as those of her guardians. He sent the papers, so for now things have been deflected, but when your team isn’t confiscated by a League representative in.. say two week’s time, questions are going to be asked.”

“They’ll resend it.”

With no Silver and no mons, surely this would be the breaking point for Green.

Little wonder Silver’d flipped them off.

Certainly tracks.

“Suffice to say, your time here is very limited. If you have any business I’d warp it up, fast.”

Green remembered one of Karen’s favorite swears then, Arceus screwing Mew in a field of fucking flowers, it fit. All of Karen’s profanity fit right then.

“Fuck.”

Alright Green. I'll give you that one.

Huh and wonders an adult who didn’t care about her swearing. That was new.

I suppose it would be odd after what she has been through.

“What are your plans?”

Green tapped her fingers on Ditty, quills smoothed, ripping into amorphous skin so she wouldn’t cut herself on his edges.

“I wanna say… walk right to the beach and surf off,” Green confessed.

I can understand that. But the way she says wanna instead of staight up saying it... something is holding her back here.

“I expected better.” He ignored her bristling, continued with no inflection. “Can… Blasty outrun a police lapras? Can he out run a search and rescue human hunting sharkpedo? Because those… those are a nightmare to shake off.” Giovani warned jaw twitching, hands clenching as if remembering something Mask-like. Mindful of how she looked when something made her think of freezers, or Brown’s room or made her need a knife in her hand… Green went still and quiet. She figured sharkpedos had been a thing for Giovanni once. Probably a dead thing considering how the Rocket tended to kill things that irritated him. But still, it was a thing and Green waited until he’d shaken off his mood and picked up the idea where he’d left it. “And all they need is a few hairs, an old shirt, and they’ll follow you across any ocean until they catch you or drop dead. They’re worse than police arcanine.”

“I said wanna…”

Odd that Giovanni wouldn't pick up on that detail as he seems pretty keen on a lot of things.

The Boss tipped his head at her, eyes thinned. “Elaborate.”

She did.

XXX

Mid chapter cliff hanger?! Good thing I don't have to wait for you to write the next part of the chapter!

She came home, with a black eye, no wallet, and Ditty gone, and was in hysterics. Inconsolable Green threw herself on father and wailed.

“They…they took Ditty!”

Hmmm... why do I have the feeling this is Green putting on an act?

And her mother was trying to get her to turn her face, to look at her right.

“I know your hurt and scared sweetie, but I need to check your pupils. Make sure this isn’t going to need a hospital…”

After a halfhearted struggle and sob Green folded, letting her mother’s hands guild her face into the stinging light.

“Pupil’s fine…” Father’s hands are raking her hair and she winced back as Mother bumped her, too close and hovering hitting Green just right. She hissed, scrapes burning at the touch and her mother stepped back, stammering apologies.

Somehow them trying to help her just feels wrong now. After the tracking device and the betrayal of her trainers license. Its insane how someone can actually mean well but things turn out like this... well written!

“Sweetheart, you’re here, you’re safe, we’re here.”

Two truths one lie, she wondered if he knew she knew.

Ah, the lie being the bit about safe. if he knew she knew? No idea what Green means there, but I suppose this line was meant to be cryptic.

His arms around her were more sensed than felt, he barely applying any pressure. She could have slithered out of his grip if she went limp, but didn’t. Clinging to him like he was flotsam and the world was being washed away. “Now, tell me, what happened.”

“It was… there was a man… a man in black… with a…a R on his chest. He… He spoke funny… but said… he said…”

XXX

Yep, this is a ploy of some sort. The warnings on the chapter make me think it will guaranteed go horribly wrong. If not for the warnings, I would speculate over where this would lead.

“You really threaten to kill people for their ‘mon. Like, your ‘mon or your life?”

“Though cliché, it works.” Giovanni drawled,

Ah, confirmation it was planned. This section now confirmed as a flashback.

Ditty had shimmied up the table and was prodding the Mob Bosses’ calloused hands as if testing the tenderness of potential pets. Giovanni inched his fingers back a bit, disliking the mild sliming they’d got perhaps.

With a quiver, the ditto slithered to Green and Green obliged Ditty’s near insatiable need for cuddles.

Every bit of writing where Ditty is concerned is top notch. Actually, I think its even better than the writing for Gio and thats saying something!

“Your altruism may make things worse, for you.” It was almost a warning, almost concerned.

“It’s about Silver.” For him anyway, her reasons didn’t count. “One in three odds, I don’t like it.”

I'm guessing Gio is referring to an aspect of the plan that was discussed prior to the start of this flashback but after the end of the last section where she met him in the evil pizza factory.

Holy hell had Silver been busy. He’d been almost caught painting a serial code, an old battle record code on Pallet’s “welcome” sign at the highway, and if one typed in that number into a search engine… Well it wasn’t Green’s shining moment, that was sure, but the footage had shown Oak with his mask off. Worse, it’d outed Oak as a man who’d played and mocked Green’s fears in public.

Oh wow, so there was some kind of record that can show everyone what wonderful guy Oak was to Green! Nice going, Silver!

The spiel about her stealing so far had been dismissed as her hysterics, her agreeing to anything at all to make the birds just stop…

Suffice to say Oak was not getting a lot of fan mail at the moment.

It was really messed up what he did. I can't say I feel sorry for him here.

Especially since Rocket had hacked and deleted all the data about Oak reporting Blasty missing, and the footage of her taking Blasty…

Ah, that certainly would help!

Red’s home had been vandalized, ice slicks and scratched windows. Footage of Red “baselessly accusing Giovanni of being a Rocket” at a pokecenter, Silver listening on, bored and tired, getting his ‘mon checked out, an unwilling audience of one, had been leaked. It’d been one of Red’s more venomous rants and Giovanni’s lawyers had gone absolutely wild. They were digging into Red’s Champion status with razor tongues and slander claims and dragging everything vaguely sketchy he’d done during his journey right into the muk. Not mud, but a muk.

Silver has indeed been busy it seems!

And Green was so proud. Because no one had thought to use a pokecenter’s footage. Except for Silver, who clearly was taking stabs at Red and offering his Father an olive branch all at once.

Sometimes its good to spell things out like you did here. Without the bit at the end, this might have been a nice detail I would have missed.

“So, he might like you a little, I mean not that the snowmen weren’t’ a hint.” He’d always made one for her birthday after all, and her midterm gift had been left on one. Not that Green was going to tell Giovanni about the birthday thing. “It was a rather artsy prank after all, almost friendly…”

“He started with knives.”

Oh comeon Gio, like you don't agree with everything Green is saying here. I saw your chapter how you appreciated the snowmen.

“You know those things don’t work, right, Roomba knife killers? Your Rhyhorn could have sat on it and… And he did, didn’t he,” And Green was grinning with glee, just imagining it. “He just sat on it and…”

“Ms. Azule, you’re pressing a line of inquiry that I’d recommend you drop, or Sird will be delivering the authenticating blows.”

Spoilsport.

I guess Gio is looking to hold onto some cool points here.

Green snapped her lips shut, and it held for a minute, maybe two. “But that means he sorta likes you now?” Green offered.

“I think… I’m the lesser of two evils.”

I might just be tired at the moment. Whats the other evil?

“I don’t need this right now. And one more smartass word and you’re paying your own phone bill.”

Green shut up.

Thats right! Ride that gravy train aaaaall the way!

“I think, considering Silver’s animosity towards your parents he might do something to them, considering what you know of him…”

“It’s not going to be a snowman prank that’s for sure.” And since Giovanni wasn’t turning off her phone added. “But… he might not, yet? They’re still feeding me and stuff and Silver might worry that they’ll stop if he starts.”

To the Rocket’s grimace of disgust, Green huffed.

“Yeah, Mask sucked. I think…” and she was feeling towards the idea because this was new and crazy and just nuts. “I think if he comes he’s going to try to talk me into going with.”

Huh so they did discuss the potential of Silver returning to rescue Green from her parents. I had speculated the lack of contact with Green would make Silver think Green was in trouble, but now Silver has some hard evidence.

“And you’ll go with?” And it really wasn’t a question, really. Green knew a threat when she heard it. And didn’t it say everything that Giovanni wanted Green right by Silver, it’d be like him being right by Silver because he knew her, knew her parents, he’d, supposedly, have her do anything and everything he wanted. Get to be there without being there.

Rockets were such creeps.

Well maybe so, Green but Gio is still Silver's dad. Saying it as a threat though... I can see why it would get under Green's skin.

“What about the tracking sharks and stuff?” Green checked, not quite believing he was this type of ass.

“That can be handled.”

And Mew damn him his tone was so smooth, so unbothered, as he threw her under the bus. To her face. She’d of called him Karen’s longest profanity she could think of if she wasn’t sure he’d snap her neck, he looked that pissy.

“Oh, if Silvers along you’ll deal with anything and everything… like a good Da. But I have to get out of town in a hurry and it’s “so sorry, guess you get eaten Green”.” She stood, recalling Ditty with a growled. “I’m done.”

Huh... I think Green wants Gio to treat her as his daughter. Thats the only reason she would draw a parallel to his treatment of her when Silver is involved.

I wonder if Gio picks up on this and, more importantly, if he is able to care?

He started, half standing. “Where the hell do you think you’re going?”

“To the beach you ungrateful bastard! Any beach! I gotta get a head start on that shark hunt, right, cuz… cuz… screw you! I starved to kept Silver fed and starved and didn’t tell him I was starving.” And she’s screaming at him, walking tight circles that don’t make sense until she’s at the door, then she’s ripping her hat off and fighting it on. “I took Brown's room so many times so he wouldn’t. And you know what? You get in there long enough you can hear him dying in your head. Day two and you think he’s talkin’ because it’s that quiet and anything’s better than that awful fucking silence that’s so deep your heart hurts and you want it to stop. And come day five, you start thinking, “Brown’s got it so damned good, no pain, no nothing!” Mask put Silver in there seven fucking days, when Silver refused to kill someone. He had to relearn how to talk.”

Her tone twists, a mock sweetness that’s hoarse because she’d been screaming at the top of her voice too long.

“So, guess who had to teach him again?”

His shock was hitting every button she had and she was seeing red, literally, tunnel vision, and could almost smell the burning. Fury smelt like Silph burning. It shook her harder than a building coming down.

“GUESS!” She shrieked.

We know Mask was bad. We already knew Mask traumatized the kids. This is yet another angle we haven't seen it from though. This is the part of Green she keeps buried deep. Hard to believe she had been holding onto so much ammunition.

Alright Gio. Lets see how you respond to something like this.

And Giovanni sunk into the chair, eyes wide, face pale, all intelligence to him… all poise… all that danger that he’d been capable of wielding… it was just gone. He looked like a shell of a man, gutted. And Green’d seen people like that, literally. Sneasel more than willing to do what Silver wouldn’t without orders if need be...

I'd say it had an effect!

So it basically did a mind-crush to Gio it looks like. I would think at this point that Gio would then apologize or something after he is done being brain-dead from that verbal brain-blast.

Its likely Silver would just be dead without Green there to look after him. Time to acknowldge Green's worth for what she did for your son, Gio. Time to start treating her more like a daughter than a tool to get to your son. At this point, I think even you would be a parent to her than what she's currently got to work with...

Because Sneasel’d seen Silver after Brown’s room, that last time. His first words, the second time around, had been to wail Sneasal’s name. His second had been to wail for a Da who hadn’t come.

And she told him that and watched the man turn a shade she’d seen corpses left in freezers.

Well, this is certainly a big button to push. But what does this button do?

So I don't know what shade corpses left in freezers turn. I don't think its brown because that doesn't make any sense in this context, so it leaves white or red. He was already pale from her last barrage, so I guess the only color here would be red. Red would mean angry. Overwhelmingly angry. Uh... yikes?

It seems Gio is the type that instead of feeling sad gets angry. Yeah... that does seem to track for a mob boss and all... you might want to run now Green.

Looks like this won't be going anywhere fuzzy after all. Uh, and just so we are clear, Green, this one is entirely your fault for adding that last jab!

Good. She hoped Giovanni hurt, she hoped he hurt, and she hoped he froze, and someone shattered him because he deserved no better.

Done, Green turned on her heel and slammed the door at her back, and booked it.

He was going to kill her, she’d earned that.

But he’d earned it too.

Wow what an end to a chapter!

Closing thoughts:
Wow what a chapter!

We got a bit of everything in here: parents adding the last straw, Ditty being Ditty, Green pulling out more word weapons than a dictionary, and Gio's mental defenses being totally shattered!(for once!)

So Green is under the impression Gio is now angry enough to kill her. Obviously we know that doesn't happen since she ends up back with her parents later. There is more to the in between here and her getting back to her parents. I assume the next chapter covers that.

Not going to lie, if the next chapter hadn't already be written, I'd be pretty ticked having to wait potentially months for the next one to come out!

This took forever. I'm spent on reviews for today lol... 😅

 

[Tango]

Oh SHOOT! I just realized I was missing my review for your chapter 3 so I have it here instead! SORRY!! Hopefully you haven't started reading through these yet! This one was done in that faster style I was experimenting with.

Roost Chapter 3 Review

I like how you describe Green's thought process behind the drink she is getting. Chapter is already off to a great start.

"Mum cleared her throat, and some paper was slid aside… and a t that quiet..." Bold letters have a space between that doesn't belong.

Poor Green getting stressed and going for the sugar.

Green not doing so well all focused on the bubbles. I think she is going to snap.

And now almost laughing... I'm getting the distinct impression that is the opposite of a good thing here...

She really wants to blurt out he is the leader of Team Rocket. Bottling things up is going to have some kind of effect!

"And she stirred, s loud as she could." I believe the s is meant to be as

So she is gearing up for a Mon battle she is expecting to happen right in the living room. Why though? I thought it was already established that her and Giovanni have a common goal at least for now?

Oh so SHE is thinking of being the instigator if Giovanni doesn't properly explain in a way to make her parents face it and her mood has been building up on that point as well. Yikes! 😅

Mask: Public enemy number 1 and probably the only person in this fic I would probably enjoy watching uncle G's mon eviscerate.

Tell them uncle G! Help Green to not feel like a crazier person than she is for once! I like the build up and anticipation we are getting here. Having Green's pov is perfect for it.

So wait, Green is ignoring some of the dialogue that is occurring between Giovanni and her parents? Selective hearing? That's a cool way to explain that there is more than what the narration is strictly saying.

"Still, that last been had been a warning." Bold word I think was supposed to be "bit"

Definitely some things going on with Green. She wants the picture because she can't stand the truth being covered by all the fluffy lies all the time.

Her ideas for retribution ramp up so quickly! Watch out uncle G!

"and she’d find a way to blame it on Silver on it." I think maybe the bold words don't belong and should just be removed?

Sorry for so many suggestions and/or error point outs are all grammar/spelling. I would like to find writing or story to question or offer suggestions on instead but I'm not seeing much and I'm enjoying the story so far!

(“I suppose…” And Giovanni was indulging ) Who is saying the bold words? I can't tell! *Reads farther* Ok NOW I can tell. I had to re-read the paragraph after reading it once. I also tried re-reading the prior paragraph leading up to the bold words multiple times. Just because right after it mentions something Giovanni is doing doesn't automatically clue me in that it is obviously Giovanni speaking. If I'm not certain who is talking it hurts the reading experience. Can be fixed simply by changing to "Giovanni lead with as he indulged a slow walk..." Plenty of ways to make it not confusing though. This might just be a "me" problem but I wanted to point it out even if it is since there could be others that have the same issue.

(“That he’s crazy? Because I’ll write that down if you pay me fifty.”) Did Green say this? *Reads farther and comes back a several lines later* Ok so Green DID say this. Playing guess the dialogue is not very fun. I understand the way you handle dialogue does cut down on some word count though. Its just its not always obvious to the reader who is speaking...

Uncle G is unfazed by you sticking out your tongue Green. Not that he should be fazed by a 10 year old's antics under normal circumstances...

lol they talk about the idea of a minor as if that stops people from doing things in the Pokemon world.

Ol uncle G is going through quite a bit here to get parental consent. I guess he really does take the parenting thing pretty seriously especially considering who he is.

In a way, its great that her dad is a gentle spirit, but I get the feeling that the illusion he so desperately clings to will soon be shattered.

There we go now its starting to ramp up but uncle G is STILL holding back. Impressive!

This is now a very short fuse for Gio. Poor Green's parents really have no idea what they are messing with now.

Woah Green nice save there! I was starting to think destruction of the house by a mon battle would be the best case scenario!

Aww hearing how Green describes her motivation for helping Silver is endearing. 🥰 I'm sure that's making an impact on Giovanni's overall opinion of her too.

Gio could give Green.. whaaat??? Does she even understand the adult terms she is using and asking for there?? Shares of Silph ... that actually seems out of character! For someone with simplistic feral-like language/concepts who is a child on top of all that... I think I'm going to need some kind of explanation on this one be it inside or outside of the fic. Clearly I don't seem to be understanding her as a character yet, but I feel like I should by this point in the story... I get that its meant to be unexpected for Giovanni, but I think its that way to an overly large extent to the readers too. If she asked for a million dollars instead or something like that, I could certainly buy that though. Not trying to be overly critical though, I'm just that surprised about it is all.

"Huh, a hysterical Rocket,m the sight" I think the bold m is a typo.

So.. i think what this is saying is that she very nearly made Giovanni laugh by asking just a ridiculous question, but he doesn't want to laugh here and wants to be taken seriously and look imposing. I understand the incentive for the lead up to this. I do like this bit.

Wait she is still trying to argue for it? lol
She is older than Silver, yes, but the way she is saying it is as if she is just as much uncle G's kid as Silver is! If she is trying to play on his parental instinct, my guess is that she will eventually succeed but it might take a looong time on that!

Ok apparently she thinks Gio is not amused even though she recognized the tell with his eyes that he is in fact amused based on comparison with Silver. What the crap, Green. It might make more sense if she thought Gio was making his eyes look that was as a way to fool her into thinking he was amused but I don't see any evidence of that in the narrative.

Wait... apologize to Gio when literally a few minutes ago her father was asking to leave? If it actually worked they would be set for life. This isn't even something to apologize for, its just something to laugh at. And that's not even counting how absurd it is for the overall situation that her parents are still blissfully unaware of. And he grounds her for a month for stuff like this?????

"They could travel through a region for reasons besides “avoid Team Rocket”, and the region’s professor sponsored Goodie Goodie Dexholder squad, and Oak… and, maybe, the police?" in between the bold words, did you meant to have the word "be" there?

So she is imagining adventure with Silver. Sure, sounds like it could be pretty fun for her!

"He wasn’t, Mew and all the Legends help them if Silver did come back and they not say a thing." He wasn't.. what? What is it that he wasn't? Gio wasn't going to keep them in mind? Green's father wasn't going to keep Gio in mind? Who is wasn'ting what??

Trusting Green not to abuse his phone number is going to be a stretch, especially after he spam called Green to start with, but he wants info on Silver and this is the best way to get what he wants.

Yeah, she isn't expecting to see Silver there again. I don't actually think Gio thinks Silver will be there either. I'm sure he is just hoping for info in general rather than actually thinking Silver will be back there, but maybe he isn't as sure about that as Green is?

"This was making Green remember her tea, all sludge and sweet, the sweetest grimmer ever, and her stomach roiled at the thought." Is grimer one m or two? Maybe a typo. If not, just ignore me here.

lol and Green is already thinking of more ways to get back at Gio. She is clever enough to hold back for the proper moment though. Watch out Gio! I think she is planning to take over Team Rocket if you aren't careful!

Wait, Silver used to LIVE with them and now she is squeamish over Silver having Green's phone number??? Whaaaaat? I don't get it at all.

Wait a minute, what is Gio even talking about here? Silver likes Green in a sibling way and vice versa. Why would they even need to rely on Gio to pass messages back and forth? Why is Gio offering to do that? What is the benefit of that? Wouldn't they just call each other directly? Is it because Silver is likely in a different region and Gio has numbers for several regions?

I'm not understanding how things escalated to screams and tables overturned. Granted, I know Green is upstairs at this point, and we are relying on her pov for info so this is likely intended confusion here, but I am having a hard time imagining how this played out in a way that makes sense at this point.

Things get even more heated? No mons though? Whaaat? I'm so confused here...

I'm glad i found some non grammar/spelling stuff to poke at.

Overall, I like the chapter!