Disclaimer: Hmm, let’s see. I don’t own Jessie, James, Giovanni or Domino. They belong to Nintendo. Michael and Kat Morgan, Kyle Ketchum, Virginia and Li Crandall, and Lunia Oak all belong to Angela. Many thanks to her yet again! Finally, Annie and Cherish Masterson are mine, as well as Red Rocket Cynthia Greenway, White Rocket Shari Leonard, Trainee Sharon Majors, and the assorted Rockets of B-Unit.
RETURNING TO POWER
By Allan North
Chapter One:
The Woman Who Forgot
The black Humvee sped through the city streets, it’s driver obviously not caring about speed limits or courtesies. Behind the steering wheel of the shining car, Virginia Crandall gritted her teeth and stared ahead angrily as she continued to rant at her passenger.
“I can’t believe all the crap that Morgan boob is putting us through! Honestly!” the blonde spat. In the passenger seat, Virginia’s twin brother glared ahead and growled in agreement. “It seems,” Virginia began in a mocking voice, “that a gang of thieves have stolen some artwork from the Cerulean City gym. I want a group of volunteers to go raid their hideout in Pewter and bring those artworks back to Cerulean. Pah!” Virginia spat.
Li Crandall glared ahead. “You don’t have to tell me twice. And all that junk about visiting sick kids in the hospital???” he growled.
“I swear, Li, I can’t take it much more. One of these days… It’s just gonna be… bang! Right between that pansy’s eyes!” Virginia said with a perverse grin.
“You know… You know what the problem is.” Li said solemnly. “It’s that Giovanni died and Domino disappeared. If even one of them were still around, none of this goody-goody crud would be going on.”
“Heh, ain’t that the truth.” Virginia agreed.
“Man, I’m starving. Let Michael wait and lets grab a bite to eat, huh?” Li asked.
Virginia nodded in agreement. If there was any pleasure she derived from being on the Team anymore, it was that she could make her “superior” (or at least the person who she let think was superior) wait for her. The last six months since the big showdown involving the Morgans and Annie Masterson that had culminated in the destruction of The Resort, the death of Giovanni, and the strange disappearance of Mistress Domino had seen many dramatic changes in the way of life for Team Rocket. Suddenly, they found themselves under the leadership of Michael Morgan, the son of Jessie and James Morgan, and Michael’s designs for the Team were a far cry of Giovanni’s to say the very least. Whereas Giovanni had encouraged lies, deceit, and violence as a means to an end, Michael had encouraged the opposite, ordering agents to stop fellow thieves and murderers, having undercover Rockets perform community service, and even liquidating a number of the Team’s assets to make anonymous donations to various charities. Some Rockets had welcomed this change, seeming to be tired of the betrayals and deceit of Giovanni and Domino. Others were unsure of what to think, simply accepting the orders as those from their Commander. Finally, there was a cadre of Rockets to which Li and Virginia belonged, a number of rockets who were mainly Reds and Assassins who were disgusted by the new ways and only obeyed out of reverence to Michael’s position. Some of these old guard Rockets grumbled, but did little more than that. Others, especially the Assassins, hated Michael with a passion and were constantly scheming and developing plots to reclaim the Team. These plots, however, never seemed to come to pass.
Of course, with the new direction of the Team, Assassins such as Li and Virginia had become obsolete. Michael preferred to passively silence any enemies to what he called “the peace”, and had all but forbidden the act of murder by an Agent. Suddenly, the life they had known for so long was no more, and they were stuck in a strange world that they would rather have never known in the first place.
The Humvee pulled into the parking lot of a small diner that looked like it had fallen out of the fifties, and the two former Assassins stepped out. Their uniforms were the same nowadays, though now the “A”s on their sleeves were a reminder (as Michael put it) of the “acts they could do to help others”. It sickened Virginia and Li to even think about it. The pair walked slowly to the diner door, with Li walking unsteadily with a walking stick, the result of an attack from Masterson. The pair entered the restaurant and heard the strains of an electric guitar emanating from a large jukebox as a scratchy old 45 of Duane Eddy’s “Rebel Rouser” played. The pair nodded to the hostess and sauntered to a booth in the back of the diner. The hostess turned to the waitress behind her and said quickly, “Dominique, two people at table 12.”
Dominique nodded at the hostess as she grabbed a tray of four hamburgers and walked out to a table of hungry teenagers. After making her delivery, the blonde turned and walked toward the back of the diner, where Li and Virginia sat, their noses buried in the menus. Dominique was a tired woman of middle age who had found herself one day with no memories of her past. All that she could remember was waking up in a doctor’s office and being attended to cautiously. After a period of observation, she had been told that her name was Dominique and was sent out into the world with a small sum of money, a change of clothes, and little more. Since that day, Dominique’s life had been an uphill climb as she tried to balance her own survival with the thought of someday learning about her past. She had held many jobs at various eateries as a waitress, the position being the most readily available, but she often found herself job-hopping because of difficulties with employers. To make matters worse, the sparks of her past were few and far between. Occasionally, she would see or hear things that would trigger tiny bits of recognition, but could never seem to connect them to a concrete memory. Sometimes they were phrases, sometimes they were simple objects. Dominique loved to spend her free moments (of which she had very few) at the local mall, because it seemed to her that that place held many small reminders. A small pet store always had Persians in front of it, and how Dominique loved to watch them! They seemed to cry to her, to scream to her that they were a part of her past somehow. Likewise, there was a particular men’s clothing store that Dominique frequented, though she never went inside. There was a bench outside the store, and the woman would often sit there staring at the store’s window at a mannequin that always wore a red Armani suit. Like the Persians, this suit seemed to scream for her attention and recognition, but again Dominique had no idea exactly why.
Dominique approached table 12 and pulled a small notepad from her apron pocket. “Are you ready to order?” she asked the couple politely. The two blonde-haired patrons kept their faces behind the menus, but a female voice said from behind one, “Yeah, gimmie an order of mild chicken fingers.” The woman lowered her menu, and began to speak again as she looked from the menu to the waitress. “With extra ranch and a Co- co- Oh, my God…” Dominique looked at the woman strangely as her face registered total shock and she continued to stammer.
“Is everything all right, ma’am?” Dominique asked.
Virginia didn’t reply, but grabbed her brother’s arm. “Li!”
Behind his menu, Li grunted. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’m ready. Gimmie a burger with no…” Suddenly, his menu was yanked down, and his gaze followed his sister’s pointing finger to the waitress. Li’s eyes went wide as he stared in disbelief. “Wha- What the-“
By now, Dominique was very confused and a little unnerved. “Uhm, a burger with no… what?” she said, attempting to get the man to finish his order.
“Mistress Domino!” Li suddenly blurted, immediately saluting the waitress. “What are you doing here???”
Dominique cocked an eyebrow. The man’s manner seemed somehow vaguely familiar to her, but as usual she had no idea why, and decided to shake it off. “Mistress… Domino?” she repeated, confused.
Virginia’s face suddenly broke into a devious smile, and she punched her brother in the arm. “You idiot!” she hissed. “She must be hiding undercover, amassing a force to take back the Team!” Virginia grabbed Dominique’s arm, and pulled her down into the booth as the waitress looked around nervously. If her boss saw her sitting down at a booth, she’d be in real trouble… “You can tell us, we’ll keep it quiet.” Virginia whispered.
Dominique stood up quickly, and said firmly, “I’m afraid you’re mistaken, ma’am. My name is Dominique, not Domino, and I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Li’s face took on a sly grin. “Sure you don’t.” he said with a chuckle. “We understand.”
“I- I think perhaps you should leave, sir, ma’am.” Dominique said uneasily. She had never refused to serve a customer before, and was well aware that it could cost her her job, but she didn’t care right now. These two were just acting too bizarre for her liking.
To her surprise, the two customers nodded and slid out of their booths and stood up. “Of course, Mistress.” The woman said respectfully. “But know that you do have allies in Viridian. There are a number of Reds and Assassins awaiting you.”
Dominique’s confused look was genuine, and Li suddenly leaned forward to whisper, “If you know what we mean, blink once. If you don’t, blink twice.”
Desperate to get rid of the two strangers, Dominique cautiously blinked twice. The man took on a confused look, but turned to leave with his sister. Before leaving, they pair turned at the door and gave Dominique one last curious look before departing. Dominique shook her head and walked to the counter where the hostess stood. “What was with them? Why’d they take off?’ she asked curiously.
Dominique shrugged, preferring not to discuss the weird exchange she had just experienced. “Not hungry, I guess.” She said simply as she grabbed her order for another table.
In the parking lot, Li sat in the passenger seat of the Humvee and looked at his sister. “What do you make of that? I know that was Domino. It had to be!”
Virginia nodded, lost in thought. “Yeah, yeah, it was. But… something wasn’t right. I don’t think she was just playing a front to look normal.” She replied.
Li scratched his chin. “She did look pretty far away… and she didn’t have that spark in her eyes that showed when she was up to something… Hey, you don’t suppose…”
“Amnesia?” Virginia finished. “It’s possible. It’d make perfect sense, actually. Think about it, she comes out of the Resort with amnesia, and that bastard Michael hushes it up and kicks her out to ensure he’ll have no opposition as the Leader of Team Rocket!”
“But what do we do about it? I mean, if Mistress Domino does have amnesia, she won’t have a clue of what to do or how to bring the Team back…” Li asked.
Virginia ran her fingers through her hair. “No, she wouldn’t… unless… unless we make her remember!”
“Now, how the hell could we do that?” Li asked.
Virginia smiled wickedly as she threw the vehicle into gear and drove away. “Brace yourself, little brother, we’ve got a lot of work ahead of us…”