Two Days Before the Gym Battle with Nessa
The air inside the hidden warehouse in Cerulean reeked of burnt ozone and singed fur. Moisture clung to the metal beams—condensation from Froakie's frantic movement—turning the concrete floor into a slick mirror of grime and sweat.
Enzo was bored. So, he made them bleed.
"Hit him, Litten! Don't let him breathe!" Ronnie yelled, sweat dripping down his forehead, his eyes fixed on the blue blur moving far too fast for his liking. "If you can't hit a frog, how are we going to beat other Pokémon?"
It wasn't a clean spar. It was a street fight where the only rule was survival. Froakie and Weezing against Ronnie's Litten and Proton's Sprigatito. But Enzo wasn't listening to the commands. He was leaning against a metal beam with his arms crossed, observing the chaos with a clinical detachment. His eyes, usually analytical and cold, were scanning for flaws.
That was when it happened.
Froakie, cornered between Sprigatito's vines and Litten's flames, did not retreat. Instead, the small frog looked up. Weezing was floating five meters above the ground, a massive ball of toxic gas, inert and heavy. Without a single command, the frog improvised. With an explosive burst from his powerful hind legs, Froakie launched himself vertically, landing on the rugged back of the floating Poison-type. He used Weezing as a platform.
Enzo watched the frog's muscles contract. Gravity inverted. Froakie launched himself from the ceiling, coating his body in dense, pressurized water, transforming himself into a kinetic projectile.
SPLAT.
The impact on the concrete, landing exactly between the two cats, was visceral. The water exploded with the force of a grenade, throwing Litten against the walls with the sheer force of the displaced air and drenching Sprigatito instantly.
To Ronnie and Proton, it was just an excellent move. But for Enzo, the sound of the world turned off. Ronnie's shout faded away. The hissing of the flames vanished. All that remained was the slow-motion image of that fall.
Enzo's eyes focused on the point of impact where the concrete was cracked. It wasn't the water that did that. It was the physics. A small body. A great height. A brutal acceleration.
Mass times Gravity equals Catastrophe.
The equation flashed in Enzo's mind like a neon sign in a dark alley. If a five-kilogram frog could cause that shockwave by falling from five meters, what would happen if the mass were multiplied by ten thousand?
Enzo's breath hitched. His heart didn't speed up; on the contrary, it slowed down. It went cold.
"Boss?" Proton called out, noticing that Enzo wasn't reacting.
Enzo didn't answer. In a mechanical motion, devoid of any emotion, he raised his arm. The red beams of the Poké Balls shot out, swallowing Froakie, Weezing, and even the Deino in the corner, ending the training session abruptly.
Silence fell over the warehouse like a heavy shroud. Ronnie and Proton exchanged confused glances. The atmosphere had shifted. The temperature seemed to have dropped ten degrees.
Enzo pushed himself off the beam. He didn't look at them. He walked slowly, like a sleepwalker, toward the old, worn leather couch in the corner of the makeshift living area. He sat down heavily. His hands clasped in front of his mouth, elbows resting on his knees. His gaze was fixed on an invisible point on the dirty floor.
"Enzo?" Proton took a step forward, genuinely concerned. "Are you okay?"
Enzo heard none of this. He was no longer in the warehouse. In his mind, he was looking at the sky over Kanto. And in the place of clouds, he saw monsters falling.
Inside the silence of his own mind, Enzo began to move pieces on an invisible chessboard. He needed a distraction of biblical proportions—something loud enough to deafen the League and blind them to Executive Nero's covert strike on the Island.
If something heavy fell from the sky...
The thought spiraled. Not rocks, not meteors, but flesh. Wailords. The Float Whale Pokémon. The problem was physics. Wailords float because they inhale massive amounts of air to drift like blimps. But that's only if they are caught or recalled on the surface.
Enzo's mind flashed back to the basement lab, to Professor Leni's failed experiments with the Unstable Green Serum—the liquid that accelerated cellular growth so violently that it caused genetic collapse. He didn't need to hunt titans. He could manufacture them. If he captured common low level Wailmers, then injected them with Leni's serum underwater... the forced evolution wouldn't find any air to intake. Their expanding bodies would gorge on the water. Instead of becoming buoyant balloons, they would become solid, four-hundred-ton tanks of pressurized liquid.
They wouldn't be Pokémon anymore; they would be biological depth charges.
And who would commit such an atrocity? Team Aqua. The fanatics who wanted to expand the sea. Rain from the sky, whales crushing the land... it fit their ideology perfectly. If Enzo manufactured a Team Aqua terror attack in the heart of Kanto, he could step out of the rubble as the survivor. The savior. His reputation would skyrocket.
The League wouldn't just allow him to go to Hoenn; they would beg him to go hunt down the monsters responsible.
With the weapon forged and the scapegoat selected, Enzo mentally unfurled the map. Cerulean City? No. Too close to home. Saffron City? Nope.
His mental cursor drifted south. Pallet Town. The untouchable home of Samuel Oak. The academic heart of Kanto. It was perfect. Striking Pallet Town wasn't just strategic; it was symbolic. Destroying Oak's laboratory would diminish the influence of the "Grandfather of Pokémon."
But he needed a reason to be at ground zero… Lilian Jenny. She was the key. If he manipulated her into inviting him for a tour, he would be bulletproof. A guest. A terrified tourist standing right next to an Officer Jenny when the sky fell.
Then, there was the final variable. Red. The boy had the potential to be the strongest trainer in history. Enzo needed that strength. But he needed it loyal to him, not to the League. How do you control a force of nature? You break it.
Zorua. Enzo mentally scripted the tragedy. Amidst the chaos, Zorua would take the form of Professor Oak. He would stage a specific encounter: 'Oak' finding Red's mother trapped in the wreckage. And in that pivotal moment, the Illusion-Oak would make a choice. He would turn his back. He would choose to save his "precious data" over the woman. Red would watch him let his mother die. The hatred born in that second would be absolute. And that was when Enzo would step in. He would be the one to dig through the rubble. He would orphan the boy, only to adopt his loyalty.
Enzo stopped. The momentum of his thoughts crashed against a wall of sudden, sickening clarity. He looked down at his hands. They were steady, resting on his knees, but for a split second, he felt the phantom weight of blood. Not liters, but rivers of it. This is madness, a small, human part of him whispered. This isn't a heist. This is genocide…
But then, a memory flashed behind his eyes. The vision of Deoxys's memory. The tremor in his soul stopped. If I am not the monster today, there will be no world left to save tomorrow.
He finally looks at Ronnie and Proton
"I just had a really bad idea..." Enzo whispered, his voice rasping against the silence.
"Proton," Enzo commanded. "Call Leni. Now. Tell him to stop the research on Fairy types immediately. Tell him to get his ass upstairs."
Proton didn't ask questions. He saw the look in Enzo's eyes and ran toward the basement lab.
Enzo reached into his pocket and pulled out the TR Device. He took a breath, steeling himself. Once he made this call, there was no turning back. He pressed the button. Contact: Executive Nero.
"I finally have a plan," Enzo said, cutting straight to the chase. "But if this happens, I need to be present. I won't be on the Island strike."
He gripped the device tighter, his knuckles turning white as he stared at his own reflection in the dark screen of a nearby monitor.
"I need intel on where to find a specific Pokémon species. Wailmer."
Enzo glanced one last time at the wet floor where Froakie had landed, the image of the impact still fresh in his mind.
"And," Enzo added, his voice dropping an octave, "I need a Team Aqua member."
There was a long silence on the other end. Team Rocket and Team Aqua were oil and water; they didn't mix. Then, Nero's voice came through—calm, dangerous, and genuinely interested.
There was a pause on the other end. "I understand. But please," Nero's voice came through, calm but sharp, "explain your plan first. I won't authorize a deviation based on blind faith."
"The plan is a large-scale terrorist attack on Pallet Town," Enzo replied, his voice shifting to a professional, cold cadence. "Total destruction of infrastructure, including Oak's Lab."
Nero paused. "And how do you propose to flatten the sanctuary of Kanto? With what army?"
"My scientist has developed a method to force the evolution of aquatic species instantly," Enzo explained. "I intend to capture dozens of Wailmers. We will evolve them underwater using the serum. I am going to drop Wailords on the city. Biological kinetic bombardment."
A low whistle came through the speaker. Nero murmured, a mix of horror and admiration in his tone. "How does a boy your age conjure a plan this cruel?"
"Necessity, Sir."
"Fine. But the logistics," Nero pressed. "If you are going to be present at ground zero, have you arranged your alibi? The League isn't stupid. A trainer of your caliber surviving a massacre doesn't go unnoticed."
"That is taken care of," Enzo assured him. "My contact is Lilian Jenny. She is a native of Pallet Town and a relative of the local Officer Jenny. I will manipulate her into inviting me there personally. I will be her guest."
"Wait," Nero interrupted, his tone skeptical. "You are telling me that the entire Team Rocket Shadow Unit is currently on hold... waiting for an invitation from a teenage girl?"
"Yes," Enzo said, unflinching. "It is the perfect cover. If I am invited by a member of the police force's family, I am above suspicion. I become a victim, not a perpetrator. This will not only clear my name but also skyrocket my reputation by playing the hero. And it gives me the perfect public motive to travel to Hoenn: to hunt down the 'terrorists' responsible."
"Your connection to Steven Stone isn't enough?"
"For what I want to do? No," Enzo replied darkly. "I need to be a hero, not just a friend of someone important."
Silence stretched on the line. Nero was weighing the risks. "Very well," the Executive finally responded. "Let's see if it works. But it goes without saying... You know what happens if you fail."
"I do."
"Good. Call Viper. He will get you the assets."
"One more thing, Sir," Enzo added. "The Fairy Type reveal... it has to wait. We need the resources for the attack."
Nero chuckled, a dry sound. "Priorities. Just make sure I hear a date next time."
Click.
Enzo didn't lower the phone; he called Viper, then Petrel. Then he turned to the room. The atmosphere was heavy.
"Ronnie," Enzo called out. "Get the diving gear. When I get back from the drop-off with Petrel, we are going hunting. I need Wailmers. Lots of them."
"You got it, Boss."
Enzo then turned his gaze to Leni. "I need that Unstable Evolution Serum ready. Enough for at least twenty Wailords."
Then he turned to Proton, "And Proton... prepare for a solo mission." He swiped a file to Proton's device. "Go to Pallet Town. I need a complete dossier on these four: Red, his mother, Samuel Oak, and the chief officer Jenny."
Proton frowned, looking at the screen. "Boss... spying on a kid and his mom? We have a massive attack to plan."
"That kid," Enzo said, his eyes narrowing with terrifying certainty, "might grow up to be more important than Giovanni himself. Do not underestimate this task. Go."
Proton nodded sharply and left. Enzo paused at the door, pulling out his phone one last time. He stared at Lilian Jenny's contact photo.
"Time to schedule a date," he whispered.
The days that followed were a blur of calculated madness.
The hunting was brutal. Enzo and Ronnie spent their nights in the freezing depths off the coast of Vermilion. It was grueling work, but they secured nearly fifty specimens.
Meanwhile, the operation was in progress. Ronnie shaved his head and did the same to the Team Aqua grunt who would later become responsible for this attack, then dressed in Team Aqua uniforms. He flew on top of Fearow past coastal cameras to create false sightings. In the lab, Leni finished the Unstable Green Serum—a deadly syringe designed to force evolution and trigger an explosion.
The final piece fell into place after Enzo's victory against Bea. He played the part of the tired trainer who won the bet. Lilian took the bait. The invitation was extended.
Everything was ready. In the storage tanks, Enzo had over thirty unstable Wailords because not all 50 survived, filled with water, ticking time bombs waiting for the drop. Pallet Town was already dead, they just didn't know it yet.