Jessie and Meowth were salivating their hearts out as they waited for the food James was cooking. It had been a couple of weeks since they had a decent meal, and today, they got lucky with scamming a naive Trainer off a good amount of money.
"Hurry up, James!" Jessie impatiently called out.
The blue-haired boy was used to her impatience for years, and did not even bother answering her. He was not going to hurry up and compromise the quality of their first good meal in weeks.
"That smells delicious." The trio heard someone call out from behind them, followed by a chuckle that sent chills up their spines.
They immediately got on their feet, and defensively looked at the uninvited guest. Jessie and James were mildly surprised to see who it was, but they were more terrified of the menacing Mega Metagross indifferently looking at them.
"What are you doing here?" James managed to calm down first and inquired. His heart tightened when the smile on Aizen's face thinned at his question. Those deep Violet eyes that suddenly narrowed as they looked at him sent his instincts screaming to run away, but he found himself incapable of turning his eyes away from boy.
"James Stanely McMaden." Aizen called him out with his real name. "Your family has been looking for you."
The blue-haired boy's eyes widened in horror, and his mouth opened to say something, but he found himself at loss of words.
Aizen ignored the young man and turned to look at the magenta-haired girl.
"Jesseline. No surname. Daughter of former Kanto Ace Agent, code-named, Miyamoto. Your mother was one of the first Ace Trainers to be assigned to project Team Rocket, overseen by her mentor, codenamed, Madame Boss."
"How do you know that?" Jessie's voice was shrouded in solemness, and she was viciously looking at him.
"I know a lot about you." He smiled at her. "There's no need to for that." He shook his head as soon as Jessie started to reach for her Pokeball. "I am not here to arrest you or harm you."
There were a few minutes of silence between them. His words had raised a lot of questions in their minds and managed to capture their curiosity, not only about him, but also about each other. Both Jessie and James were interested in the details of one another.
"Why are you here?" Meowth asked. It had stayed unusually quiet so far, and that was all because he was a Pokemon with superior instincts to his friends. He had not sensed any hostility from Aizen.
"I have an offer for you. All of you." Aizen said and then approached them, making them tense, before unceremoniously sitting down where James had been and tending to the food that was cooking. "You should listen what I have to offer before you decide to refuse it." He commented before Jessie could yell at him.
The magenta-haired girl frowned at his words and felt agitated when James and Meowth took their seats beside Aizen.
Several minutes passed, and Jessie did not budge from her place.
"Jessie..." James worriedly called out to her.
The girl glared at him before lowering her eyes and taking a seat by his side.
"I am listening." She indifferently said to Aizen.
"Are you guys aware of the presence of another Criminal Organization in the Region?" He started off with a question.
The silence from the trio told him that they were aware of the situation even if they were not clear about it.
"The Organization calls itself Team Doom and their goals would most definitely lead to the destruction of Kanto Region." Aizen smiled lightly. "Don't worry, I don't plan on forcing you to do anything reckless." He assured them before they could voice their concern. "What I need you to do is to help me gather some information about your Criminal Organization. Keep me informed of what they are up to, and find out why Team Doom attacked a base of Team Rocket."
The three of them narrowed their eyes at him. What he was saying was as reckless as it could get. Though not too vicious, Team Rocket was, after all, a Criminal Organization. And the fate of the traitors was not pleasant.
"If you agree to become my Agents in the Team Rocket for a couple of years, I can help you achieve your dreams."
"Our dream is to become the best Agents of Team Rocket and get the Boss to praise us before all of the members!" Meowth announced fanatically. "You can't help us with that, punk!" It mockingly looked at the boy.
Aizen sent a glare at the little Pokemon that stilled its heart for a couple of seconds. And then he turned to look at the frowning faces of Jessie and James.
"You can become the Coordinator you always wanted to become. And you can follow your dreams to become a successful Trainer and an Engineer." He looked at Jessie and James and said. "I can not only help you financially, but I can also get your Criminal Records cleared. I will get you new Licenses with your new identities as the inhabitants of Hoenn Region. And if things fall out, I can even protect you from being tracked by Team Rocket."
Jessie looked at him in surprise when he mentioned Hoenn. It was the region that she once wanted to escape to and live the rest of her life in, but fate had other plans for her.
The offer of a new License and a new identity was too lucrative for James. He could not use his real identity of the fear that his family would track him down, and his old license was expired since he had not taken part in any official competition.
James gave up on his dreams because he understood how harsh the reality was after he left his family. He understood how important money was, but no matter how hard things got, he still refused to return to his old life. Anything was better than that, and that was how he ended up with Jessie and Mewoth as a criminal.
Unlike his two team members, the blue-haired boy had no sentimental attachment with Team Rocket, but he was not going to jump on what Aizen was offering without them. Jessie and Meowth were special to him and together they had been through a lot.
"Why us?" Jessie narrowed his eyes at him.
"You are not important to the Organization, and you are not privy to the important information. Which means that you are least likely to be suspected of working for someone else. At least for a good while." He smiled at her. "And your Criminal Record does not have any unpardonable crimes on it."
"Since you know that we are not privy to any important information, how can we be of any help to you?" James frowned and asked.
"I have faith in your skills." He smiled at the pair. "I told you that I know a lot about you." He meaningfully looked at Jessie and then turned to look at James. "Both of you are good actors, with different set of skills, and best of all, you are really good at escaping trouble."
"We are the trouble!" Meowth called out but was ignored by everyone.
Aizen finished preparing the meal and then gestured them to eat it.
He then ignored them and left the clearing as the three of them discussed his offer over the lunch.
Meowth was trying to convince James and Jessie about how good of an information this was for their Boss, and that they could gain a lot from becoming double Agents. However, to its shock, it learned that its Team Members were serious about considering Aizen's offer and leaving their life at Team Rocket behind them.
Jessie revealed to her Team members of the life she had led, and James informed them about his origins. By the time they reached their decision, a couple of hours had passed, and they found Aizen sitting under a tree, writing something in a diary.
"We need numbers." Jessie straightforwardly said.
"You will get a monthly salary of 50,000 Dollars each. Other than that, you will get bonuses of upto 6 digits, depending on the information that you gather for me. A two-year contract, and at the end of it, if you choose to become professional Pokemon Trainers and start your journey, I will get you sponsors. Your contribution will be officially acknowledged, and it will help you with Perks on your License." Aizen closed the diary and placed it in his bag. "How does that sound?"
"We need more." Jessie immediately said. Her two teammates disbelievingly looked at her for asking for more after such a lucrative deal.
James wanted to say something to her, but she shot him down with a glare.
"I think it is more than good enough for the job I am putting you on." Aizen narrowed his eyes at her which unnerved her.
"I still want more." She gritted her teeth and said.
"What do you have on your mind?" He raised his brow and asked.
"Land, and a house." She folded her arms on her chest and said.
"Nothing is free, Jesseline." He smirked at her. Her demand was too easy for him to accept, but he had no reason for doing that. "Complete two missions, and I will pay you in land, and a house in addition to your bonuses for the information."
"What missions?" James worriedly asked.
"I need information on Tesseract. And I need information on Team Rocket's relationship with Mewtwo."
"What's Tesseract?"
"Who's Mewtwo?"
Jessie and Meowth curiously asked.
"Isn't it now your job to gather information on them?" He smiled at the trio.
"But we need some information before we can start looking for more." James argued.
The Orayen Prince lightly smiled at his words and stayed silent for a good minute. He knew that James wanted to know if there were any hidden dangers in those missions.
"Tesseract is a weapon created by a scientist called Ronan in Team Rocket. And Mewtwo is a Pokémon. A very powerful Pokemon that Team Rocket knows about." He informed them.
"How powerful?" Mewoth frowned.
"Don't know." Aizen shrugged. "But it is definitely a Legendary."
"What?!" James and Meowth looked at him in disbelief and then fear crept in their hearts.
"If that is so, we need more..." Jessie ignored the reaction of her teammates and wanted to demand for more money, but Aizen shook his head and cut her off.
"If you want a house, and a land, get me the information I need. And if you can't do that, then stick to your main job and be satisfied with what I am offering." He said with finality.
James and Jessie looked each other in the eyes and then at Meowth. The trio nodded their heads in unison after a few seconds and agreed to work for Aizen.
"Here." He handed them a slip with an address. "You should visit this place. A person will meet you and help you set up a new account. You will get your new Licenses and Identities from him."
James took the slip and read the address before shredding it and pocketing it.
"Oh, I forgot to say something to you." Aizen mischievously smiled at them.
"What?" Jessie frowned and asked.
"If you betray me, and anyone close to me suffers harm because of you..." His eyes suddenly glowed in a violet light. The trio felt their hearts being gripped by an invisible force, threatening to crush them, and they even forgot to breathe in the sheer terror that haunted their minds. "I will end you." He gravely spoke, and his words engraved themselves on their hearts.
Aizen then stopped using his Powers and let them take the breath they had been holding.
"Understood?"
"Yes, Boss!" The three of them saluted to him, but their bodies were trembling uncontrollably in fear.
"Good." He whispered and Teleported away with Dexter.