Journalism – What’s Old is New Again

There is a resurgence of Rocket related activities in Kanto.

What’s that? You didn’t hear about it? You didn’t read about this in The Vermilion Daily? Of course you didn’t, because they don’t print the facts, they print what they think you want to hear. And right now, people are scared, they’re hearing rumbling of black clad reprobates on the outskirts of farmsteads and towns, stealing into civilisation in the middle of the night taking what they want, poaching Pokémon, shaking down shop owners for protection money. So the media tells them everything is fine, everything is okay. Well it’s not. There’s one simple fact you need to face, Team Rocket has returned to Kanto. And they’ve done it so slyly, so swiftly, you didn’t even see it happen.

The Facts

The S.S. Anne was not an accident, it was a two fold strategic assault by a group of merciless, driven and ruthless gangsters.

Bear with me, this is going to be a little convoluted, but you simply must understand the threat we are facing as a region and with so little input from the Elite Four and the Pokémon League it’s beginning to feel like we’re doing it alone. The following facts are backed by statements made to Interpol by those involved and the files I have received from anonymous informants.

The S.S. Anne

In June, just before the Beginner’s Cup a, a young man named Vincent Taburo caused a destructive distraction aboard the S.S. Anne using a Pokémon which had been exposed to an amplified stressful psychological process through means of a modified Pokéball known as the Simulated Battle Ball. The Pokémon underwent this procedure while under the care of Professor Samanea, the head researcher of Kanto, when it was discovered that this process was actively harmful the Pokémon was sent to the Route 5 Day Care Ranch for rehabilitation. A front for Retro Rocket under the guise of Restoration Rocket, a charity founded and backed by the late Mr. Fuji.

During this distraction a group of highly trained and marshalled Retro Rocket members infiltrated the ship, using the immensely damaged hull as an entry vector, while aboard they secured the research notes for the Simulated Battle Ball allowing them to begin manufacturing their own Battle Balls.

However, this was not the only goal, Professor Aubrey Humboldt shifted his attention from the ruins of Diglett’s Cave to investigating the wreckage of the S.S. Anne.

Diglett’s Cave

With the ruins unguarded and rumours of a vast network of tunnels and waterways spreading non-native ecosystems across Kanto the members of Retro Rocket set their sites on controlling these sites via proxies and stooges such as Benjamin, an ex-Rocket grunt who was hired to watch the dig site for an opening and alert Vincent of the opportunity to strike, taking the site for Retro Rocket and allowing them to claim rare and powerful Pokémon for themselves. With his failure to secure the site he was refused promotion within the ranks of Retro Rocket and eventually defected, allowing himself to be caught by Interpol, which is how we have this information, it’s all taken from his signed statements present in evidence for his hearing.

Saffron City

During a raid led by Detective Ashikaga on an old Team Rocket base beneath the underground passage which runs from Cerulean to Vermilion it was discovered that the members of Retro Rocket had begun to create and use an upgraded Battle Ball which had further deleterious effects on the Pokémon exposed to them while increases their combat efficiency.

Silph Co., which had been working on rehabilitating those Pokémon fortunate enough to be recovered from the grasp of Retro Rocket came under siege from Retro Rocket, during this event many prototype devices were stolen and the head of Cyber Defence was revealed to be a Retro Rocket mole, working undercover to undermine their efforts.

Shortly thereafter eyewitness reports from an unsanctioned colosseum beneath the abandoned Psionic Research Centre confirmed that Retro Rocket has begun actively recruiting and disseminating these ‘Berserk’ Pokémon to new members of their organisation.

The Future

The future of Kanto remains unclear. The Elite Four seem unusually quiet. Interpol has spared only one officer, who is working with a hired Private Investigator and a defector from Retro Rocket. The situation is an undeniable crisis and those who should be defending us remain ignorant to our please. So I’m putting this request out there. Red, Blue, Lance, anyone who was around for the 1996 Rocket Incident, anyone capable of defending us. Come home, we need you now more than ever.

To those of you who aided me in Vermilion, who saved my livelihood and the young man in over his head, you’re doing good work, don’t be intimidated. You may be the only people in Kanto who can stand up to Retro Rocket. Your flames burn brighter than any I’ve ever seen.