In the shadows of a storage room at the Pokémon Appraisal Center, a man with short pale blue hair, dressed in a suit and leather shoes, was smoking a cigar...
"Cough, cough, cough... hack, hack, hack! So, did you meet that Trainer?" Sitting on an unconscious woman, the suited man coughed until tears streamed from his eyes.
"Archer, if you can't smoke, could you stop pretending you can? Who inhales cigar smoke into their lungs?" The female instructor with long red hair pushed up her glasses and curled her lip. "And you haven't even opened a window. Are you planning to die along with the hostage?"
"Well, the hallway says smoking is bad for your health." Archer awkwardly stubbed out the cigar. "So, Ariana, did you meet him or not? Who could make Giovanni think so highly of him?"
Disguised as a female instructor, Ariana spread her hands. "The initial contact didn't go very smoothly. He's too vigilant. And I feel like he could sense something was off about me. That beastlike sixth sense is a lot like the boss when he was young."
"Say, could he be Giovanni's illegitimate son?" Archer leaned toward Ariana's ear and asked with a sleazy grin.
"Do you want to die, talking about the boss behind his back like that?" Ariana pushed Archer away in disgust.
"How else do you explain it? The boss suddenly halted the Johto expansion plan and called you and me back to approach this Trainer named Gary." Archer spread his hands. "That's the leader's Badge! I begged the boss for it so many times, and he never gave it to me. Now he just hands it to some kid he doesn't know?"
"You don't know a damn thing. I feel like this kid is no ordinary person. Our boss