"Prepare for trouble," Jessie said to me that day. It was more of a standard greeting by then rather than a promise of a threat.
"You too, Jessie," I answered putting my paperwork together, looking over the day's work.
The first few years with TR had been glamorous. I had joined on the Nugget Bridge, abandoning my original career path to be a Pokemon Master. It's not that I preferred criminal activity, it's just that I saw more potential in this organization than in the 'real world'.
They had a vision and a goal, a kinship of sorts that regular people didn't. Giovanni was still an asshole but it would be only a few years before he was ousted by someone else. Hopefully, I thought, me.
What had happened after I joined was very simple but had a large impact on the world. The Elite Four was disassembled quickly. Not even the dragon master of the Johto region could stop us. The gyms were barred and the entire mill of sending children off to fight the battles of their parents came to an end.
The original point of TR had always been to come out on top. To master the world so to speak and we came close to it. Neither Team Magma or Aqua could compete because of their simple mindedness. And no team afterward had ambitions like we did, nor did they operate the same way. We were a corporation. The others were bandits and religious zealots.
Absorbing them into our institution allowed us one important thing. Become legal.
It wasn't long before we created prosperous competitions and made pokemon battles into a sport. The free-reigning brutality of competitions halted and we took over with systematic badgeless leagues and gymless competitions to get the winner on top.
Our own people competed of course but never won. While the crowds came in, we sold any kind of paraphernalia to the spectators at home that we could. From fashioned pokeballs to posters.
It didn't stop there. Our research division quickly tripled and quadripled giving us the breadth of resources to come up with better stimulants for pokemon and people alike to take.
Tech division came to absorb military defense contracts and building contracts in order to rebuild all the main regions after the long war since before my time.
Lately though, they had something else in mind. Something more consumer oriented.
"Make it double, James," I said to the man as he came in. He sat down next to me and we started talking about the good old days where we felt like cowboys roaming Kanto.
"And now, now we're stuck here in cubicles making the boss more money than anyone could have imagined. Why does everyone out here need a damn pokedex anyways?"
"I don't know," I shrugged. I pulled out my 'Dex and looked at it. A sleek screen, beautiful renderings of pokemon on it, "It's a pretty thing though, isn't it?"
"Only if the voice control worked and it was actually useful," James turned to his 'Dex and spoked, "Dexter, how many pokemon are out there?"
The smooth electronic voice came back, "I'm sorry but I do not have the answer to that. May I interest you in purchasing the Pokemon Pokedex Encyclopedia instead for $19.99?"