Recently, the trio of James, Jessie, and Meowth not only destroyed the massive Pokémon amusement park, one of Team Rocket's sources of income, but also wrecked the Viridian Gym, causing Team Rocket to lose a legitimate base. At this point, many people within Team Rocket were already quite dissatisfied with these three.
What was shocking, however, was that Boss Giovanni didn't have them sliced into a thousand pieces. In fact, he hardly punished them at all.
"They're quite unusual. You can check their performance records during the exams. If you look at overall ability, even some of the top executives can't compare to them. If they weren't so stupid, they'd have been promoted long ago based on their skills alone," Giovanni said.
"This time, consider it a chance for them to redeem themselves."
"Yes, sir…" Matori replied.
Giovanni's mind was made up, so Matori was helpless. She couldn't understand why Boss Giovanni favored those three idiots so much.
Even if their abilities were decent, the trio's talent for causing trouble was also legendary. Matori suspected that, if this continued, the damage the trio caused to Team Rocket would eventually catch up to the losses from this whole Prison Island incident.
Of course, Giovanni also had a love-hate relationship with the trio. He had never before seen Team Rocket members who could slap together a working rocket out of shoddy materials in no time. That alone made the trio more valuable than some executives.
Giovanni sincerely hoped these three would wisen up and work reliably for him, but because they'd done so many foolish things lately, he didn't dare entrust them with anything important right now. For the moment, he could only give them some low-impact missions to practice on.
At this moment, James, Jessie, and Meowth had already followed Ash back to Pallet Town.
That day, the trio received a special order from headquarters. As soon as they saw it, they trembled with excitement and eagerly accepted the video call.
"Boss Giovanni, boo hoo hoo, I missed you so much!" Seeing the person in the video, Meowth leapt at the screen.
"Idiot, you're blocking the camera!" Giovanni snapped irritably from the other end.
"Ba*tard, get out of the way!" Jessie grabbed Meowth's tail, spun him around a few times, and flung him into the distance.
"Um, Boss Giovanni, do you have any orders for us?" James stared at the screen in excitement, as if he could see Giovanni assigning them some important mission…
And after that, they would display their skills, complete the mission, earn Giovanni's trust, get promoted, make a fortune, and reach the pinnacle of their lives. What a wonderful feeling.
"Given all the foolish things you've done lately, here's your chance to redeem yourselves. You must succeed, failure is not an option," Giovanni said sternly.
"Yes, we guarantee we'll complete the mission!" James, Jessie, and Meowth, who had run back, all replied solemnly and in unison.
"Good. I look forward to seeing what you can do. Don't let me down. Matori will send you the mission details shortly," Giovanni nodded.
"Uh…" Meowth wanted to say more, but the screen suddenly went dark and the call ended. Meowth immediately became dejected.
"Matori?" At the same time, Jessie froze, gritting her teeth. "Why is it that damned woman again?!"
"All right, all right, quit complaining, you two. Look, the new mission's here." James said excitedly. It had been a long time since they'd had a mission from headquarters. Lately, they'd just been acting on their own, but they couldn't even catch Pikachu, so they were bored out of their minds.
Hearing James, Jessie and Meowth quickly crowded around again, anxiously asking about the new mission.
"Um…" James examined it carefully.
"Looks like it's a multi-step mission. For now, we're just at stage one: we need to make contact with someone and earn their trust…"
"Who is it?" Meowth asked, puzzled. What kind of weird mission was it this time?
"Ah!"
As he looked, James suddenly let out a loud shout, startling Jessie beside him.
"Ba*tard, what are you yelling for all of a sudden?" Jessie's brow furrowed in irritation, and she swung her fist, pounding it down on James's head.
"It-its... Don't rush, just take a look for yourselves," James said with a baffled expression.
How could they not recognize the person in the photo attached to the mission? After all, Terrance had saved them before in Acapulco.
As for that meeting on New Island, since Mewtwo had wiped the trio's memories, they no longer remembered it, so their impression of Terrance was still stuck at the time in Acapulco.
"That Trainer who froze the whole sea?" Meowth suddenly shuddered. Although he was their savior, recalling the other's power was still terrifying.
"Uh…" James hesitated for a moment, not knowing why Boss Giovanni wanted them to get in touch with Terrance. For a moment, he found himself hesitating.
"Hey James, you know this guy named Terrance, right? Doesn't that mean this mission will be a piece of cake for us?" Jessie suddenly patted James on the shoulder, laughing excitedly.
"Well…" James stammered, scratching his head in frustration.
But soon, James made up his mind. If it was just a simple contact mission, he could carry it out. But if it would hurt Terrance, then even if it meant not getting promoted or rich for now, he would secretly sabotage the mission...
And so, with James, Jessie, and Meowth each harboring their own thoughts, they started to investigate information about Terrance for their own reasons.
...
...
Hoenn region, Fallarbor Town. It had already been two days since Terrance returned here.
After Altaria came back to Fallarbor Gym, it gave the Cutiefly a bath in Fairy Aura, which greatly increased their overall strength. Not only did they learn the moves Draining Kiss and Dazzling Gleam, but it also enhanced the power of the Fairy Wind move they had initially mastered.
With some free time, Terrance immediately thought of the Flame of Life project. It had already been put off for long enough. It was time to move forward. After some thought, Terrance called Professor Oak's Laboratory to ask if Ash was there.
"Ash? What bad timing, they're helping me with something right now. I think they're on their way to the Orange Archipelago," said Professor Oak on the other end.
"So Ash has already gone to the Orange Archipelago..." Terrance helplessly patted his forehead. Ash really couldn't sit still for even a moment. The Indigo Plateau Conference had only just ended two days ago!
"All right, Professor Oak, I understand. Thank you," Terrance nodded.
After a few polite words, the call ended and Terrance fell into deep thought.
Since Ash and the others had already set out for the Orange Archipelago, they wouldn't be returning to Pallet Town anytime soon. Terrance remembered that Ash wanted to challenge the Orange League. In that case, he decided he would head back to Kanto for now.
Besides inviting Ash and Pikachu to take part in the Light Ball fusion project and paving the way for practicing the Flame of Life, he also planned to consult Master Bruno for training methods in martial arts. Terrance hadn't forgotten this bet, but he was a bit anxious. At the time, he'd forgotten to ask if practicing martial arts would turn him into a musclebound giant like Master Bruno. If that was guaranteed to happen, Terrance would rather not practice them.
Aside from that, the Grand Festival in the Kanto region would be held in two months, and Terrance was also planning to participate. After all, collecting five Ribbons couldn't go to waste. If he didn't attend the Grand Festival and win another honor, it would be too much of a waste of his badges.
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