Shining in the Dark Night!
The moon hung high in the sky, its cold light filtering through the broken roof of the warehouse and casting mottled shadows across the floor.
In this hidden warehouse on the outskirts of Viridian City, Jessie, James, and Meowth were slumped on a relatively clean wooden board. Staring up at the dark canopy, their faces were filled with melancholy.
"Curse it! That brat ruined our plans again!" Jessie slammed the ground with her fist, her voice thick with resentment. They had been so close to succeeding, only for Hora to interject. Not only did they fail to snatch any Pokémon, but they had also nearly been caught red-handed by Officer Jenny.
Meowth let out a sigh, its tail sweeping the ground listlessly. "Yeah, Meow. But James, if it wasn't for that shout of yours at the end—'Open the doors and let us breathe'—we wouldn't have been able to squeeze out with the crowd. We'd probably still be chased by Officer Jenny right now."
"I shouted that?" James sat up abruptly, pointing at himself with a look of utter confusion. "That's not right! I didn't say a word! Meowth, wasn't that you shouting through the smoke? I thought it was your plan!"
"If it wasn't you, then who was it?!" Jessie and Meowth glared at James simultaneously, retorting in unison. In the chaos of the smoke, they had clearly heard James's voice mixed in with the crowd, which is why they had followed the flow toward the exit.
"It was me, of course."
A clear, slightly arrogant voice suddenly echoed through the warehouse, breaking their argument.
"Who's there?!" Jessie, James, and Meowth stood up in shock, instinctively reaching for their Poké Balls as they scanned the surroundings. There were supposed to be only the three of them—where was that voice coming from?
From the shadows, a slender figure slowly emerged:
"Since you've asked with such sincerity!"
"I shall tell you with great mercy!"
"This body is the blade that severs chaos!"
"This is the declaration of eternal, high-altitude solitude!"
"The aesthetic incarnation shining in the dark night! — Has arrived!"
The familiar motto format, but with completely different content, left the trio stunned. The style was remarkably similar to their own Team Rocket entrance, but this person's aura and tone were far more arrogant than theirs.
"Who are you?! How do you know we're here?!" Jessie was the first to react, questioning him sharply. They had chosen this warehouse as a temporary base only this afternoon; no one outside their circle should have known about it.
The newcomer didn't answer directly. He simply paced slowly into the moonlight—the pale glow illuminating the face Jessie, James, and Meowth knew all too well.
"It's you, you brat!" Seeing it was Hora, Jessie's eyes widened. she growled through gritted teeth. If it weren't for the massive exhaustion from the earlier battle, she would have ordered Ekans to lunge at him immediately.
James and Meowth were equally flabbergasted. The person who had ruined their operation at the Pokémon Center was standing here? And he had... saved them?
"Don't call me that, it sounds terrible." Hora shrugged, his tone as casual as if they were chatting over tea. "After all, I've saved you yet again. If I hadn't mimicked your voice and shouted for the doors to be opened, do you really think you could have escaped Officer Jenny's perimeter so smoothly?"
He knew that with the System's "Become an Elite in One Year" task, he couldn't just sit around and wait. To become an Elite, his first step had to be joining Team Rocket, and these three low-level members were his easiest point of entry.
When the smoke filled the Pokémon Center, that guiding shout was indeed Hora throwing his voice. He had intentionally let them go so he could track them to their temporary hideout and pave his way into the organization.
Viridian City was the heart of Team Rocket. If he simply walked up to the Gym and offered himself to Giovanni, he wouldn't even see the Boss. At best, he'd be treated as a spy by the grunts and sent to "the next world." In the anime, Giovanni was a villain with principles and goals, but in the real world, his true temperament was an unknown. Without absolute certainty, Hora wouldn't risk his life.
"You say you shouted it? What proof do you have?" Meowth hissed, jumping up and counter-attacking. "If you hadn't stopped us at the Center, we would have succeeded! We wouldn't be in this mess, Meow!"
Hora ignored the accusation. He took a step forward, his gaze sweeping over the three of them as his tone turned dead serious. "Proof? We in Team Rocket never need to prove anything to anyone."
"Meow? What do you mean 'We in Team Rocket'?" Meowth blurted out. As the words registered, its fur stood on end. It shared a wide-eyed look with Jessie and James. "Wh-what are you saying? You don't mean... you want to join Team Rocket?"
"Why else would I be here?" Hora spread his hands, his tone calm and filled with an undeniable certainty. "I greatly admire the 'enterprise' of Team Rocket. Not only do I want to join, but I want to lead you—after all, your performance today was hardly that of qualified villains."
"You? Lead us?" Jessie let out a sharp, mocking laugh, looking him up and down with pure disdain. "A brat who only knows how to ruin our work thinks he's fit for Team Rocket? Much less lead us? Team Rocket isn't a place for any stray cat or dog, and it certainly isn't a place for a kid whose hair hasn't even fully grown in!"
"Whether I can join isn't for a low-level member like you to decide." Hora wasn't intimidated. He met Jessie's gaze with piercing accuracy. "Your plan at the Pokémon Center was a total failure. You didn't steal a single target, and you exposed your location. Right now, Officer Jenny's patrol cars are likely searching the nearby blocks. What's your next move? Hide in this drafty, broken warehouse until you're hauled off to jail? Or go back empty-handed and let your superior scream your heads off?"
These words were like a dagger, precisely stabbing the trio's sore spot. They had snuck into Viridian to find Evolution Stones to cover their debts. Failing that, they tried to "steal rare Pokémon" to make up the difference and perhaps escape their bottom-tier status.
Now the mission was a bust, they were wanted by the police, and the thought of returning to report their failure made their skin crawl.
The expressions of the three shifted visibly, their eyes filled with hesitation and inner conflict.