The expeditionary fleet of three enormous warships remained shrouded in a strange, suffocating silence throughout the return voyage. The crew worked silently at their stations, keeping their heads down and their footsteps light as they walked through the corridors, as though afraid any unnecessary sound would detonate the terrifying pressure building aboard. Word of the confrontation between Apollo and Matori, the two top executives, had already spread throughout the fleet through various channels. Everyone knew a storm that would decide the organization's future was coming.
When the fleet's outline appeared in the secret waters of the Kanto Region, perpetually cloaked in dense fog, everyone's heart leaped into their throat. An enormous steel dock rose from beneath the sea, and the warships slowly berthed under precise guidance. The connecting bridge had barely touched the deck when an order of the highest priority from Giovanni himself reached every core executive's personal communicator over an encrypted channel.
-All executives of rank A and above, report to the First Conference Room immediately for an executive meeting of the highest level.
Team Rocket's secret headquarters had been built inside a hollowed-out mountain. This was the heart of the entire underground empire, and the First Conference Room was the heart's very core. Cold, solemn, austere. The enormous round obsidian conference table was smooth as a mirror, reflecting the ceiling's sole light source-a massive domed lamp that simulated the light of an overcast sky. Its light fell across every face at the table, sharpening their contours while leaving them concealed in shadows of varying depths.
Giovanni sat upright at the head of the table in a well-tailored black suit, his fingers interlaced and resting calmly before him. His face was expressionless. His deep eyes resembled two bottomless ancient wells, utterly still, yet seemingly capable of swallowing every