Saffron City
1:30 AM
A black sedan drove down a dark alley behind an abandoned office building. It proceeded slowly, its lights dimmed to a dull glow. The windows were tinted black as night. Rain beat down on the hood of the sedan and rattled on the tops of aluminum garbage cans. The sedan pulled up to the back door of the office building and then stopped. Two men dressed in black suits walked up to the car from where they were standing inside the door. Both held umbrellas to keep off the rain. The passenger's side front door opened. A skinny man in a white suit stepped out into the rain. In the dim light from the sedan headlights, a crimson letter "R" pinned to his lapel shone. He greeted the two men with a nod and stepped under one of the umbrellas. One of the two men opened the back passenger-side door of the sedan. From out of the car stepped a balding middle-aged man in an orange suit. The man gripped a black ivory cane in his right hand. One of the two men dressed in black helped him under the umbrella. He looked into the sedan and whispered something nearly inaudible. The sedan shuddered violently. A large purple behemoth of a Pokemon covered in poison spines emerged from the interior of the sedan. It stepped out tentatively, avoiding a puddle in the road. A single drop of water dripped from one of the umbrellas onto the monster's head. It hissed angrily. The man in the orange suit held out a gentle hand to the monster.
"Be quite careful with Kaiser," he said flatly. "The rain makes him angry." The group hurried inside, huddled under the umbrellas. The two grunts made quite certain that not a single drop of water hit the Nidoking.
They stepped into a dark hallway. Cobwebs hung in the corners and dirt clung to the floors. One of the two grunts took a flashlight out of their jacket pocket and pointed it ahead of them. At the end of the hallway stood a very large black man in a white suit. He had a gold hoop earring in his left ear and wore a pair of dark sunglasses. On his head was a large afro. He, too, wore a red "R" pin on his lapel. As the group walked down the hall, he smiled and approached them. Two other grunts followed him. One had a whip coiled on their side. The other had a gun.
"I see you're holding up well, Electron," the white-suited man from outside said.
"What can I say?" Electron replied. "Business is booming! The people of this city are so fucking gullible. Taking their Pokemon is like taking candy from a baby!"
"The people have once again become far too complacent," the man in the orange suit said. "They have come to rely on the Pokemon League so much that they have forgotten what it is like to fight for oneself. We will take advantage of their abundant stupidity." Electron shook hands with the man in the orange suit and then led him through the door at the end of the hallway. The two grunts from outside stopped short of the door and closed their umbrellas. A stray bead of water fell onto the tail of the lumbering Nidoking. It growled menacingly.
Electron led them down two flights of stairs and into a large square room. It was an arena of sorts, with rusted metal bleachers lining the walls and a circular platform in the middle. The platform glistened with sweat and was stained in several spots with blood. A red letter "R" was emblazoned in the middle of the platform. Spotlights from every corner of the room shone down, lighting the platform up brightly. A glass-paneled balcony hung from the far wall. A red velvet throne could be seen just inside of it. A worn wooden table sat next to the platform in the middle of the room. Several grunts in black suits patrolled the room, some with scrappy-looking houndours following at their heels. The man in the white suit took off his hat, revealing his teal-colored hair, and scanned the room.
"This place is a fucking dump," Proton said.
"We're still in the process of fixing it up," Electron replied. "But with the money we've made in the past month, renovations should go swimmingly." Electron picked up a large metal bin from next to the wooden table. He opened it up to reveal that it was brimming with Pokédollars. Proton's eyes widened. The man in the orange suit frowned. Suddenly, a deafening "Bang!" issued from the hallway, followed by a scream. A grunt went flying across the room and landed just short of the platform. Several poison quills stuck out of his jacket, and his shirt was stained with blood. A monstrous roar echoed from the hallway as the nidoking lumbered in to finish the job. The man in the orange suit tapped his cane twice on the floor. The nidoking stopped in its tracks.
"Now now, Kaiser," he crooned, patting the creature on the nose. "No need to cause him any more harm." He turned to the grunt on the floor. "What did I tell you about getting Kaiser wet?" he said. The grunt looked at him, shaking with fear, and babbled something incoherent. Giovanni, leader of Team Rocket, frowned at the grunt and looked back to the nidoking. Though it had stopped rampaging, it still huffed with rage. Proton looked on with a devious smile. Electron was busy counting his money. The man in the orange suit frowned and nodded to two other grunts. They walked over to the fallen grunt and began dragging him away towards the infirmary. There was a moment of silence.
"It's nice to have you back, boss," Proton said. Giovanni looked at him straight-faced.
"It's nice to be back, I suppose," GIOVANNI said. "Soon the Pokemon League will once again fear us, and not even the Red will be able to stop us!"
---
Twenty years after the events of Pokemon Red and Blue, Pokemon Trainer Red has returned home from a long voyage around the world to reclaim his title as League champ. He has has found that Team Rocket has resurfaced, once again making money by forcing Pokemon to fight to the death. The characters of the rp are elite trainers who have been gathered by Red from around the world to infiltrate Team Rocket's death battle syndicate and take it down from the inside by any means necessary. Characters may make whatever choices they wish, whether that be killing opposing Pokemon, letting them live, or choosing not to battle some opponents at all, but making such moral decisions will affect how likely Team Rocket is to discover that your character is, in fact, a Pokemon League agent. The RP will be high-casual, with emphasis on character development and interaction as well as battling (Ie, this is not an arena roleplay). Combat will be done just like in any other roleplay, so we're not using Showdown or anything of the like to stage battles.
I'm aiming for at least five interests, but I never plan these things with a maximum number of players, so express as much interest as you'd like.
