by Adrian Tymes and Dreadite

    Giovanni motioned for his associates to stay back. Dreadite and Car’tos complied, keeping Icy out of sight and quiet.
    “I chose Nido-“
    “SCYTHER!” A flash of red from somewhere around Dreadite formed into a blade-armed pokemon.
    “Dreadite! Keep your pokemon out of this.”
    “It’s not my pokemon.”
    “Then what was it doing on your person?”
    “I don’t know.” Almost faster than any of the eyes present could follow, Dreadite whipped out his sword, beheaded Scyther, and resheathed his weapon before Scyther could hit the ground. “And I don’t care.”
    Instead of collapsing, though, the Scyther’s body staggered for a bit, while its head made a perfect arc to land on Booga’s shoulder, gooey strands of *something* trailing from severed neck to neck stump. As startled as he was, Booga was even more surprised when the head whispered, “This is not a safe place for you right now. Leave.”
    Giovanni carefully watched the Scyther stagger, nearly straight and true, towards Booga. When it finally collapsed, it dug its arms into the floor, carving a roughly circular hole beneath the novice trainer and sending him to the floor below. The Scyther’s head landed on its body.
    Icy’s nose twitched. That Scyther smelled familiar...
    Giovanni abruptly kicked the Scyther into the hole, then walked out of his office into the hallway where Dreadite, Car’tos, and Icy waited. Only after he closed and locked his office door did he touch a wall intercom. “Security to my office NOW! There’s a Ditto on the loose.” He turned to the others. “Let us discuss business elsewhere. I suspect our guests are about to get noisy.”
    “Sir?”
    “Dreadite, Car’tos: from now on, scan yourselves for pokemon before entering our bases. It would seem that our old friend Mimic has picked up a new trick...”
    At that moment, though, Mimic was in the form of an Eevee, practicing nothing more sinister than sheer cuteness [1] as four girls tried to cuddle him simultaneously in the Celadon Pokemon Center.
    “I’ll do what I feel is necessary, Giovanni.” Dreadite glared at the leader of Team Rocket, and waved his hand. “Not like that would help, you know. Dittos are amazingly harder to detect than you’d imagine.”
    Giovanni shrugged. “Do it. Understand?”
    Dreadite smirked. “Whatever you say.”
    Icy just panicked, and started to bolt. Dreadite stepped back, and disappeared as the teleport pad went into play, flashing bright before calming down. Icy panicked, and Dreadite reappeared above him on the ceiling, before dropping down in front of him. “Hold it.”
    Giovanni smiled. As much as Dreadite seemed to disobey and spite him, he WAS an effective member. Car’tos just shrugged as Dreadite kicked at Icy. Icy dodged back, and stepped right into Giovanni. Dreadite laughed, and Giovanni picked the Pikachu up.
    “Icy, Icy... you make too much of a fuss. You know you can’t win.”
    As Giovanni picked the Pikachu up, Dreadite pressed the intercom button.
    “This is Dreadite. Have Erich Owens transported to the Pokémon Island.”

To Be Continued…

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