Back to Zero

L.R.T.

It took a few years for her to climb the ranks of Team Rocket. It seemed an eternity to her; she lacked patience and wanted immediate results, praise, and glory. Once she had, however, it all seemed to be worth it. She was the top-ranked agent, hands down. If there was a big job to be done, she was the one that was sent on it with all of Team Rocket's resources at her disposal. Madame Boss trusted her with things her own son was in the dark about - yet he was the one that was to be groomed to take over the organization upon her death, as it currently stood.

Things were shifting, however; Giovanni cared more about partaking in the sweet, illegal nectars that having such a powerful mother allowed. He was ungrateful. He didn't understand that everything she had done, she had done for him. Creating an empire wasn't an easy task, after all. Madame Boss was sure that he would happily want to take the reins as soon as possible, perhaps even before her death, so she could sit back and enjoy all that she had done in her life with the knowledge that her son would carry on the legacy and do it proud. This wasn't coming to pass as she had anticipated.

Giovanni, a young man at the age of twenty, hated the fact that his future was planned for him. He skipped important meetings for the company and with his mother where he was supposed to be learning how Team Rocket ran and what a boss needed - and was expected - to do. He stayed out all night, sleeping with one girl after the other, getting drunk and taking a black market drug made from stun spore. To his credit, he would always steal whatever money or Pokemon his interest of the night had on her but the all-powerful leader of an organization like Team Rocket that did not make.

Madame Boss was growing tired of her son's antics. He was her only child and, truth be told, she had spoiled him a bit; but things were getting serious now and he needed to buckle down and accept what had been laid out before him - a dynasty. Unfortunately, Giovanni didn't understand (or didn't care) how important the situation was. This lead Madame Boss to do some critical thinking and inevitably do something that broke her heart.

After talking to several legal experts, she had papers drawn up. Very rarely did a woman of such power get a case of the nerves, but as she called in her top-ranked agent to her office that day, she tapped her foot incessantly against the carpeted floor. She was out of ideas after this. If her agent refused the deal she was giving her, Giovanni would end up inheriting the company and running it into the ground. He would end up getting arrested and spending most of his life in prison. While that wasn't a tragic thought to his mother at the moment, she refused to have her empire go down in flames because of her incompetent, ungrateful child. She had to give it a chance to live and prosper...a chance for her legacy to live and prosper and not become the butt of a joke.

Jarred out of her thoughts by a knock at the large, wooden door of her office, Madame Boss stood and called, "Come in, Miyamoto."

After a one last quick check of her hair and lipstick, Miyamoto entered and shut the large door behind her, getting ready to go and take her usual seat on the plush couch by the wall but stopping upon seeing Madame Boss standing. She stood there awkwardly, glancing around the office, waiting for her boss's orders. This was usually how their meetings went - without Madame Boss's standing, which was strange in itself. Miyamoto walked in, Madame Boss gave her orders, and off she went. It was done in a quick, timely manner because Miyamoto didn't need things explained to her - she did whatever she saw fit to complete her mission and as long as no one ended up arrested, money wasn't lost, and Madame Boss got what she wanted in the end, no one seemed to care.

Madame Boss finally broke the silence. "I'd like to talk to you about something, Miyamoto."

"Oh," she said rather stupidly, blinking.

"I've been thinking about this for a little while, now," Madame Boss began, walking around to the front of her desk, leaning on it, "and while it pains me to do this, I feel that I have no choice."

Miyamoto's heart sank. "Are you - are you firing me, sir?"

Madame Boss laughed, waving her hand in dismissal of such a ridiculous question. "I would never do a such a thing. Nothing would get done in this place if it weren't for you."

"Oh." Miyamoto blinked again, utterly confused now. "Well, if this isn't about firing me, then what is it about, sir?"

Reaching back to her desk, Madame Boss took the legal documents she'd had drawn up and held them out for Miyamoto. "I want you to run this organization, Miyamoto. I want you to be my successor."

Gingerly, Miyamoto took the papers, afraid they might fall to pieces and Madame Boss would change her mind just as quickly as she'd made it up. "I - I - I don't know what to say -"

"Say yes. Sign those documents."

"Madame Boss, what about your son?"

She snorted, crossing her arms and turning her head, looking out the row of windows across the other wall of her office. "He's not ready for this. I doubt he ever will be. He doesn't care about Team Rocket or the fact that I created it for him. All he cares about is himself. He would ruin this organization and my family's reputation. I won't have it and I certainly won't have him act the way he does and still expect to get his inheritance." Madame Boss walked over to Miyamoto, who was still in shock and staring down at the papers, literally holding her future in her hands. "You're more like my own than he is, Miyamoto. You know everything there is to know about this company - possibly more than even I do."

"I doubt that..." she murmured softly.

"I know that this is asking something very big of you. This will change your life forever. I'll let you have a little time to look over the papers, think about it - but don't dally! I won't let this offer hang in the air forever."

Miyamoto nodded, swallowing hard and somehow managing to look up at her and smile slightly. "I'll give you an answer tomorrow, sir."

Madame Boss nodded as well and turned around, heading back to her desk. "Keep this under your hat, Miyamoto. Gossip runs rampant here and the last thing I need is Giovanni finding out about this and throwing a tantrum."

"You have my word." Miyamoto bowed low.

Miyamoto stayed in her room the rest of the day, looking over the paperwork. She didn't understand much of it - most of it, in fact - but couldn't imagine Madame Boss would be screwing her over after so many years of loyal service. Then again, she was screwing over her own son.

A knock at the door prompted her to sit back and rub her eyes for a moment, getting away from what seemed like endless miles of text. She got up and went to her door, opening it with a hand on her hip. "Cyrus," she said with a sigh.

A young man about Giovanni's age stood at her door, blue hair a mess, and he grinned nervously at her. "Miyamoto! You're coming out tonight, right? You promised, remember?"

Miyamoto made a face. "I've been reading something for the boss all day. I don't feel like -"

"Miyamoto," he interrupted, "one of these days, you'll have to make good on that promise to let me take you out."

"A promise I can't seem to remember making..." Miyamoto smirked.

"I have witnesses!" Cyrus protested.

Letting out another heavy sigh, Miyamoto rolled her eyes. "Fine, fine. I might as well get it over with sooner rather than later. Let me get cleaned up."

"No, no. You look fine! We're just heading to the usual spot."

She wrinkled her nose, looking down at herself. Before she could open her mouth to protest, Cyrus had her by the hand and was dragging her out the door, barely giving her time to close it behind her.

The "usual spot" was deep in the basement of Team Rocket headquarters; past boxes piled to the ceiling and other junk unidentifiable in the low light given by flickering, buzzing overhead lights. A part of the basement that had hand-recognition technology implemented on a large, steel door (for what, not even Miyamoto knew) had been transformed into a night club for all ranking members and anyone else Giovanni thought deserved a taste of the Team Rocket lifestyle. Whatever had been there before and needed such security was long-gone, replaced with dark paint, a flashy dance floor, stereo equipment, tables and a bar, and strobe lights that immediately made Miyamoto's already tired eyes want to jump out of her head.

Giovanni was under the impression that his mother was oblivious to his little club and it never ceased to amuse Miyamoto when he would act like he owned the place, act as though he were outsmarting Madame Boss so completely when she knew his mother knew all about it and just preferred to have him under her roof sometimes rather than gone every night. She also felt it was a good idea to keep the members relaxed and let them blow off some steam in a way that wouldn't get them arrested. It was all about her having total control and power over the situation - even if no one knew she was watching.

The place seemed to have gotten sleazier since she'd last been there but then again, so had Giovanni. She spotted him almost immediately sitting in a plush booth with about five girls around him, two of which weren't even members of Team Rocket. He was lining up shot glasses but had taken a break to apparently "light up." There were plenty of things to smoke and get high off of - Oddish leaves, pretty much any of the stuff growing on the back of a Venusaur, Tangelas had something to them, too but that was expensive - not that that would bother Giovanni any.

"He's such a pig," Miyamoto said abruptly, glaring at him as they took stools at the bar.

Cyrus followed her gaze and made a face at what he saw. "He's the definition of spoiled little rich kid, all right."

She bit her lip, glancing around before leaning in to Cyrus with a smirk. "Won't be that way for much longer."

Raising an eyebrow as she ordered her drink and demanded they keep coming, he leaned in to her now. "What are you talking about?"

Taking her martini glass, she turned on the stool to watch Giovanni lick an unknown substance off one of the girls' necks. "Because I'm going to ruin him." Miyamoto smiled and lifted her glass to Cyrus. "Cheers!"