//------------------------------// // Compromise // Story: Celestia's Rocket Adventures // by Snake Staff //------------------------------// “A Dark Ball?!” Ash recoiled as though physically struck. “You’re kidding!” “Read my lips, twerp,” Jessie said with a hand on her hip and scowl on her face. “Each and every one of those funny-looking balls Team Fashion Victim was carrying was a Dark Ball.” “But how?” the young boy asked. “Where would they get them? Weren’t they all destroyed back in Ilex Forest?” “How should I know where they came from? I thought they were all gone when that Iron-Masked Marauder creep was dragged away to prison. Ask him, maybe he had a secret stockpile in his basement or something.” Jessie shrugged. “But if you’re asking where Team Flare got so many, then-” “Uh, beg your pardon,” Serena coughed. “But what’s a Dark Ball?” “I was wondering the same thing,” Clemont nodded. “I’ve read about every type of Poke Ball ever publicly produced or even conceptualized, and I’ve never heard of anything that matches up with what you’re describing.” “They’re your pals,” Jessie prodded Ash. “You tell them.” “Right,” he turned around, a deep frown on his face. “Dark Balls are a sick, twisted kind of Poke Ball that take away a Pokémon’s free will and reduce it to a mindless fighting machine. I’ve only seen them being used once, in Ilex Forest in the Johto Region, years ago. There was this man called the Iron-Masked Marauder who used one to capture Celebi. It got really bad, and Celebi almost died breaking free, but in the end he lost and his Pokémon were all set free. When he was taken away, I thought we’d seen the last of them.” “And so did we,” Jessie said. “Until a few weeks ago, when we spotted one being carried north to Laverre by none other than Lysandre.” “Lysandre?!” “Pikachu?!” “Why would a man like Lysandre be carrying an item like that?” Clemont asked with wide eyes. “He’s well-known as a lover of Pokémon.” “Because he’s Team Flare’s leader, duh.” Jessie rolled her eyes. “Honestly, you twerps can’t even see through the simplest ruses.” “And why should we believe you? You lie to us all the time!” “Cause last time ya didn’t and thanks ta dat we’re up to our armpits in evil Poke Balls,” Meowth walked right into the conversation without a moment’s pause. “He’s right!” James joined in from where he’d been sitting down. “You lot should be on your hands and knees begging us for forgiveness!” “Oh yeah?” Ash looked him in the eyes. “And why’s that?” “Because it’s your fault those Team Flare goons have as many Dark Balls as they feel like carrying,” Jessie told them. “What?!” Ash reeled back. “No way!” Serena gasped. “It couldn’t be!” Clemont insisted. “Chu!” Pikachu said. “Well when ya stopped us from breakin’ dose machines at da factory, ya made it all possible for ‘dem. What’d ya think we were doin’, smashin’ stuff for fun?” “Pretty much, yeah,” Serena said immediately. “You twerps really think that little of us?!” James snapped. “You guys have an unhealthy obsession with showboating,” Clemont observed. “If you just stuck to your goals you’d be much more dangerous. I thought you were there to steal Poke Balls and decided to wreck the place so no one else could have any.” “And the fact that we weren’t hauling giant sacks of Poke Balls around didn’t tip you off that something was wrong with that theory?” “Well, no,” Serena replied. “When was the last time you guys pulled off a theft more complicated than an eat and run at a buffet?” “I resent that remark even if it is true!” James halfway shouted. “Anyway, you idiots lost track of da point. We were in da factory ‘cause we knew Team Flare wanted ta use it ta make more Dark Balls, so we were tryin’ ta make sure dat dey couldn’t,” Meowth explained. “Den Lysandre played you chumps like a two-bit fiddle and interrupted our delicate operation.” “The boss wants those Dark Balls gone,” Jessie told them. “But now thanks to you who knows how many could be wandering around? Team Flare had hours to run the Laverre factory.” “Even operating at a quarter of capacity, well over three hundred Poke Balls can be produced in Laverre in a single hour,” Clemont breathed. “Well now you know how miss blue, tacky, and murderous got hers.” Jessie folded her arms across her chest. “If what you’re saying is true, and I think it is,” Ash nodded at Bonnie, “then we have to do something.” “But what can we do?” Clemont asked. “Assuming we believe all of this, how are we supposed to stop Team Flare? We don’t know how many Dark Balls they might have, what their plan is, or even where their primary headquarters is.” “That’s what we’re trying to figure out,” James said. “We stole all dat data from Team Flare’s big Lumiose base for a reason, ya know. We needed more info on were dey live and what dey were up to so we can stop ‘em real good.” “And what did you find out?” Serena asked. “Nothing yet, the files are too heavily encrypted.” James shook his head. “But no file is safe from Team Rocket’s hackers!” Jessie said. “We’ll break through them eventually and when we do, look out!” “I see,” Serena put a hand to her chin, considering as her friends did likewise. “You know,” Ash said after a moment had passed. “There might be an easier way.” “And what’s that supposed to be?” In answer, Clemont pointed behind Team Rocket, to a tree where Mable and four other members of Team Flare were securely bound. Houndoom, jaws and legs all tied together, was bunched up at their feet. Weavile dangled from a tree branch, encased in so much rope it looked like nothing so much as a cocoon. “Ask them.” “I still don’t trust them,” Twilight half-whispered, a conspiratorial hoof over her mouth. “Team Rocket, I mean.” “And why would that be?” Celestia said from where she lay, not even opening an eye. “Even if Team Flare is out to get them, it doesn’t make them the good guys,” Twilight said, watching the humans out of the corner of her eyes. “Evil can fight amongst themselves. Remember what happened with Tirek and Discord?” Wearily, the elder alicorn cracked open a single eye. “And what makes you so certain that they are, in fact, evil?” “Preponderance of evidence,” Twilight argued. “While I admit that I may have… overestimated their skills just a teensy tiny bit…” Celestia couldn’t quite hide the tiniest of smiles. “The fact remains,” her former student continued, “that Team Rocket is well-known in the Kanto Region as a gang of thieves and criminals with tendrils extending throughout the region’s underworld. Theft, sabotage, racketeering, black marketeering, vandalism, the kidnap and sale of trained Pokémon, failure to pay library fines…” she shook her head. “You name it, and Team Rocket has likely dabbled in it. And the fact that one Jessie, James, and Meowth have all been seen in close pursuit of Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town for years is a matter of public record. Ever since an incident in Viridian City at a Pokémon Center, they’ve cropped up in news accounts and police reports across the region and beyond!” “How do you know all that?” Celestia asked. “Oh, I did some light reading on the history of the trainer who captured me while I was at Professor Oak’s lab. In between the research on the state of interdimensional travel and the nature of Pokémon, it made for an interesting side project. Also, I did some extra research on Team Rocket in particular after I'd heard they had you back in Laverre.” “I see.” Celestia supposed that some things never changed. “But I think you fail to account for a few factors, Princess Twilight.” “Oh really?” the purple alicorn cocked her head. “Like what?” “Granting for the sake of it that all that you say is true, have they ever actually succeeded in robbing a child? In all of the reports and stories that you glanced over, did they ever steal your friend’s Pokémon and get away with them?” “Well…” Twilight tapped her chin. “Not really. Most of the stories I read ended with them flying over the horizon only to survive and come back in the next week or so… somehow. When I heard they had you, I thought that had to be a ploy.” “And do you now?” “Given that they were on the verge of dying to Team Flare back there?” Twilight frowned a bit. “I’m… reconsidering that particular hypothesis.” “I thought you would be. So, my first point would be that even if they are evil as you say, they are incredibly incompetent at it and hence a much lesser threat than the likes of Lysandre and Team Flare,” Celestia closed her eye again and laid her head back down. “This supports what I’ve seen during my time traveling with them. As I believe I have mentioned, I had to plan their heist against Team Flare’s data storage.” “I guess I can see how you might draw that conclusion.” “Secondly, whether or not their leader, Giovanni, wishes Team Flare and the Dark Balls eliminated for altruistic purposes or not it seems indisputable to me that he does sincerely want that. I have seen him giving these three and other agents orders with my own eyes. Every evidence suggests he feels roughly the same as I do, even if it is not for what I would consider the correct reasons. It would be far from the first time I have had to deal with somepony wishing to do the right thing for all the wrong reasons. I would not allow whatever these humans are scheming to come to fruition, and if Giovanni wishes to help I will take what I can get.” The white alicorn sighed. “Not everypony is as selfless and you and your friends, Twilight. That does not mean they cannot do the right thing.” “I see,” the other princess frowned again. “Thirdly and perhaps most crucially,” Celestia opened one eye wearily, “I believe in redemption. Can you honestly say that even if I grant you that all the crimes you accuse them of are true that they are responsible for even a thousandth of the suffering Discord once caused? Keeping in mind all of the surviving archives of his reign you have been given access to.” “Well…” Twilight shook her head. “No, I really can’t. Ineffectually stalking a child and drowning entire nations in insanity for an unknowable number of years really aren’t even close to the same level.” “And yet I still chose to try and reform him.” Celestia said. “With Jessie, James, and Meowth, granting for the sake of it that they are criminals every bit as bad as you say, I would still put them as 90% of the way towards good.” “That far?” “It is clear to me that they already understand friendship, at least towards one another and their Pokémon,” Celestia told her. “They demonstrated a capacity for kindness towards a complete stranger the day we first met, and since then I have seen a great deal of how they treat each other. While far from frictionless, there is no question in my mind they care for each other and their Pokémon a great deal and find the concept of a Dark Ball as repulsive and terrifying as I do. Instead of teaching them what friendship is, reforming Team Rocket would simply require them learning to extend their empathy to others on a more consistent basis.” Celestia paused for a moment. Twilight stared quietly at the trio, an uneasy expression on her face. “If Team Rocket is evil,” Celestia closed her eye and settled back down to rest, “then I shall simply have to teach them to be good.”