Wow. It's been more than nine months since I last updated this and I am dreadfully sorry to all those who I have kept waiting. School has been hectic this year and as the term draws to a close, I'm glad I can get back to this. To all my readers, thank you for being so patient and I'd like to credit these people for reviewing, following and favouriting this story:
Darkria Defender, spyhunter7, partner555 (again), The Mocking J, Dragon Niro, ILikeShorts (again), Shade Oliver, Alex View, PurpleArmadillo, Random k, pinkee2901, Charmander and Akatsuki's Neko Stalker, Codex the maker, Ijinzu, TheNinja4000, polargurl and Lady Shiny.
Based on the reviews, it seems that most of you want a chapter on the uniforms! So presenting to you… Chapter 3!
The Galactic-Rocket-Aqua-Magma-Plasma Sodality (G.R.A.M.P.S)
All five evil masterminds were in the conference room as usual, but Giovanni was completely undisturbed by the bickering of Archie and Maxie. Cyrus had very kindly procured special earplugs for him, made out of technology based on Pokemon with the Soundproof ability. He was instead, scanning through the letters he received from the general public, the slightly-more-experienced-at-being-evil-covertly-than-themgeneral public that is. Cyrus was staring enigmatically out of the window and Ghetsis was banging his head on the table, willing the Hoenn men, or boys, to shut up. Shame he didn't know about the ear plugs.
Finally, Giovanni removed his ear plugs and barked out a loud "Silence!", loud enough for Cyrus to hear him through his own earplugs. Like obedient children, Archie and Maxie settled back into their seats while Ghetsis thanked Arceus for the quiet. Stepping up in front of the table, Giovanni dumped the stack of letters in front of them.
"Some rather observant members of the public have noticed a major flaw in how we operate," Giovanni said quietly. The three more immature leaders leaned forward whereas Cyrus merely cocked his head. Clearing his throat, Giovanni continued, "The uniforms."
Before they could utter a peep, Giovanni activated his Holo Caster, a nifty piece of technology he had gotten from a friend in another region, displaying all the uniforms their organisations had used.
"Cyrus, you should fire your designer," uttered Ghetsis under his breath.
"Speak for yourself Ghetsis, look at your Medieval knights," sneered Cyrus.
"I did. How do you think we got such uber cool costumes for Neo-Plasma?" Ghetsis fired back. "Come to think of it Giov, do you and I have the same designer? Our costumes look pretty similar."
The vein throbbing on Giovanni's forehead was all too visible. "Number one, you do NOT call me Giov. My name is Giovanni and you WILL you use it. Number two, my designer is Unova's very own Burgh Webbeldon and I have an agreement with him that he does not design clothes for anyone else, so no, there is no chance we have the same designer."
"That's funny," shrugging out of his cloak, Ghetsis read the label on it. "Mine was designed by… Valerie la Faire from Kalos. Isn't she Webbledon's cousin or something?" Instantly, Giovanni's eyes narrowed.
"Is that so? Looks like I'll have to pay my designer a visit," he hissed. "Apparently he doesn't understand that his designs should not be floating around for his extended family to sell to other teams."
Archie, who had been quiet all this time, suddenly piped up. "You know what the problem is?" The other four turned their heads to peer at him curiously. "Your problem, is that your costumes are so recognisable even kids know we're villains. I mean come on, Rocket and Plasma, the all black get-up and Plasma's masks? They SCREAM bad guys and you have your logos so blatantly displayed. All the more so for Plasma where EVERYONE already knows your logo means bad guys for Arceus' sake. Cyrus your grunts look like robots, how can no one notice them? And Maxie who in Arceus' name would wear such a ridiculous get-up when Hoenn is so bloody hot?!" he raged.
All four stared blankly at him. "Well what do you know? The idiot has a brain," mused Maxie.
"I mean come on, look at Aqua's uniform! By far the most inconspicuous outfit among all of these and it is casual and comfortable. None of my grunts complained about the uniforms being too stiff or hot or starchy and it actually blends into the climate! Who wouldn't wear short sleeves and crop tops in Hoenn's blasted weather?"
"Enough Archie. You've made your point. It seems we will all be searching for new designers tonight. Moving along, it seems we all have issues with homogeneity," interrupted Giovanni. Before Archie could continue his rant, Giovanni snapped his fingers and his Nidoking promptly splashed a glass of water on Archie's face. Almost immediately, Archie relaxed, falling into a semi-sedated state.
"How'd you learn to do that?" exclaimed Maxie excitedly before he began snickering to himself, thinking about the things he could do to Archie if he was in that state, curling his hair, drawing on his face or stealing his Pokemon.
"You pick things up if you're observant. Anyways, back to the issue about homogeneity-"
"I assure you none of my grunts swing that way. I see them flirting with each other all the time and some even flirt with those kids. I fire those on spot, I mean those kids are minors for goodness sake. And I'm completely straight myself of course," said Ghetsis as he flipped his hair.
"Really now?" mumbled Cyrus as he gave Ghetsis' flowing long hair, and cloak, a once-over.
"Homogeneity, not homosexuality you buffoon. That means they all look the same," seethed Maxie. "Honestly, did you even pass high school if you can't tell the difference?"
"The only school I went to was the Trainer School," defended Ghetsis. "Big words give me a headache okay, lighten up."
"As I was saying," continued Giovanni as though nothing happened, "We should not be enforcing the same look on all our grunts. For one, they become too recognisable, and two, it lowers morale. Sure everyone is bonded in the same team and there's no judgement on how they look but research," he said holding up a thick stack of papers, "has shown that they need to have their own personality to develop into stronger trainers. To dumb it down for Maxie, that means the more freedom we give them with their appearance, the more the better they will be at stopping pesky kids."
"You do realise they might spend too much time on their appearance instead of training right?" quizzed Ghetsis.
"They don't spend their free time training anyway so you might as well have a team with higher morale," retorted Maxie.
"Why don't you all just mind control them like I do?" asked Cyrus stoically. "You control everything they do."
"Or we could just let them pick what to do with their hair and nails and all as long as they wear the uniform," argued Ghetsis.
"Or we can all just shut up and go home already. I think we all know that the uniforms have to change first. As for appearance, decide for yourselves," said Giovanni.
As the leaders all trudged out of the room, with a still semi-sedated Archie slung over Maxie's shoulers, Giovanni sighed to himself.
"Why do I do this to myself?"
Hope you guys don't think I've gone rusty hehe. Thanks for sticking with me everyone :) I really appreciate all the support! As you can see, I've dropped small hints about the Kalos region and who knows, I may be bringing Lysandre in! But not so soon haha since I haven't completed Pokemon X yet with all the schoolwork in between.
Until next time!