Chapter Three
Silph Tower



Monday morning.

The hyperactive alarm clock tittered like an old woman as it epileptically rattled on the nightstand. An exhausted Jace rolled over in the bed sheets and groaned, then slammed down on the alarm clock with a limp hand. It immediately stopped its incessant beeping and stilled. All was silent.

The apartment was very small- one room and a bathroom. The reason Jace did not stay at the Pokemon Center for living quarters like most other trainers was that they only harbored you to stay for two weeks, whereas Jace actually lived in Saffron City. The only pieces of furniture were a bed, a nightstand, and a table. There was hardly any room to walk around. The floor consisted of a rough carpet comparavle to the flesh of wild Sharpedo. On the table was a wide variety of safes and steel cases amongst his backpack and other various pieces of electronic and combat equipment. The cases all had padlocks, and the keys were hidden in a cranny in the very walls of the room on a large ring to hold them all. Jace's ninja uniform lay in a bundle atop his backpack. They were pitch black and covered his entire body and eyewear to protect his identity. Beside the backpack lay Jace's utility belt and his three Poke Balls. All three were painted completely black to camouflage with his crime-fighting uniform. They held Scizor, Gliscor, and Ariados. They were is closest friends in the world and would stick with Jace until the end.

Despite all of the metallic cases on the table, Jace did not possess the stolen Rocket case from that night. His logic in throwing it at the police officer was as follows:
1. The officer was prepared to fire his taser on Jace. It would be disastrous to be caught, as he fought crime outside of the law and knew things about Team Rocket he didn't want to tell.
2. It would be unsafe to keep the mysterious case around in his apartment- Team Rocket, if they discovered where it was, could corner him. It was far safer to hand it to the police so that they can store it in SCPDHQ (Saffron City Police Department Headquarters). Now, Jace knew where Team Rocket would strike next for a fact and the case would most likely remain untouched by their scrubby little hands due to the sheer amount of guards and men stationed there.
3. The more Rockets that were employed to retrieve it, the higher the estimated value of the asset. The predicted raid would set the case's worth in stone.

Jace, ready to tackle the day, set out from his apartment shouldering his bag and packing his Poke Balls. He shuffled down two flights of stairs to the ground floor main lobby and stepped out onto Packer Street.

Jace worked at Silph Company during day till noon at a part-time job fixing computer equipment. He was crafty with electronics and could build a PC from scratch if he had the money or the resources. The only reason he had such advanced ninja gear in his apartment was because they were the same paraphernalia he stolen from Team Rocket when he escaped from Saffron Hideout three years earlier. Now that he was seventeen years of age, Jace's equipment was growing a little outdated and worn.

Jace, now on Chrome Street, approached the tallest tower in all of Saffron (and Kanto, for that matter)- Silph Tower. It loomed overhead, blotting out the very sun and shading everything around it with its splendor. It was an edifice of glass and steel in perfect harmony, hued saffron like every other building in the city. Businessmen flowed in and out of the spinning, ground floor doors like liquid water; they chattered on their cell phones and hefted heavy briefcases, all while clad in sharp black suits and stark black ties. A public transit bus pulled in front of the building and dropped off over thirty workers who rushed inside. The amount of people who flocked to Silph Tower each day was truly staggering and overwhelming to say the least. They stifled the very street with their vast numbers. Silph Tower represented the pride and might of Saffron City.

About five years earlier, Team Rocket had assailed Silph Tower and held President Silph against his will until he produced the ingenious Master Ball. It was one of Silph Company's famed prototypes. However, the mysterious trainer Red, according to the tales, defeated the invading Rockets unwittingly alongside his rival Blue. Red defeated Giovanni himself when he was still in absolute command of the criminal organization. Since that fateful day, President Silph had passed on to the afterlife and handed the torch down to his son, Silph II. It was also rumored that Steven Stone of Devon Corporation and Charon of Team Galactic in Sinnoh have had ties to Silph Company and even to Silph Tower itself.

Jace crossed the busy, traffic-jammed street and entered the main lobby with a reinforcing swarm of engineers, scientists, and agents. The lobby housed a twenty-foot fountain, numerous benches and potted plants, and a reception desk. It was heavily air conditioned with cool air and jazz music played in the background. At the far wall were large elevators and check-in desks to scan ID cards. Jace espied his coworker Horace Tensky waddling his obese self toward the nearest elevator. He was a fellow engineer.

"Horace!" Jace called as he wormed his way through the thickening crowd, "Horace!"

Horace snorted loudly and lethargically glanced over his wide shoulders. "Eh? Oh, Jace. Nice tuh see ya."

"You too." Jace returned.

The two workers advanced in the horde of workers toward the elevators as the receptionists cried, "All Pokemon are prohibited! Return your Pokemon!" Silph Company had an anti-Pokemon policy within all of their branches since the Rocket takeover.

Jace and Horace had their IDs checked and they took an elevator to 52F and disembarked from the cramped space (mostly due to Horace's bulk). The floor was filled with large cubicles, conference rooms, and laboratory spaces. Scientists and their assistants worked skillfully under the watchful eye of inspectors from abroad. Printers ran off hundreds of copies; underlings knocked on superiors' offices' doors. All the while more workers were deposited by the endlessly multitude of elevators.

"This is going to be another long day," Jace mumbled under his breath as he observed one clerk growing increasingly agitated toward his stalling computer monitor.

**********

Jace slammed the door of his apartment behind him and flopped onto his bed. The springs creaked loudly under the sudden stress, then relaxed. Jace reached for his Poke Balls andcvast them at the doorway, releasing Scizor, Gliscor, and Ariados. Scizor leaned against the wall, claws crossed; Gliscor reared its body above the ground with its dexterous and powerful tail; Ariados hung from the ceiling via and thick strand of webbing.

"Hey, guys. What's up?" Jace asked. A chorus of sounds answered him. Jace continued, "Tonight is going to be dangerous. Probably the most dangerous in a long while. Team Rocket wants the contents of that case bad. Very bad." Jace held up the filched phial containing Chemical SOVEREIGN. "Unfortunately for them, they won't find what they are looking for." Gliscor emitted an eerie snickering sound from its throat.

"The police are in possession of the case right now, and probably have it guarded in a secure part of their headquarters. Tonight, we're going to defend it so that Team Rocket doesn't realize the thief took it. The thief meaning me. They don't know that it was us, but I can assure you they will eventually find out and cut our operations short. So... are you ready?" Jace was met with another chorus of voices, but this time they were aggressive and fierce.

Jace's captain in the Warhed Program, Octavius, used to always quote a certain saying that went something like 'battle-ready, but slow and steady'. It meant to be prepared before you dove into the fray, because once you did, there was no turning back until the battle was won. Jace hoped he and his Pokemon were prepared for the trials to come.

"Then get some rest. Tonight, we fight."