How Team Rocket stole Christmas...

[indigo_league]

'Twas six days before Christmas and all through their base
All the Rockets were working, putting their plans into place...







Just because there has been an absence of huge heists and explosions, doesn't mean Team Rocket has taken some time off from crime for the holidays. Everything but, in fact!

Under the eye of Jennies and gym leaders everywhere, Team Rocket has been putting their new dastardly plans into action by replacing every mall Santa and Elf (and boy, are there a lot of mall Santas and Elves this time of year!) with their own grunts and privates. Their goal? To scope out all the malls, shopping districts, and shopping centers in the two regions in preparation for the Saturday before Christmas, which just so happens to be the biggest shopping day of the year. No other day in the year has stores just so absolutely glutted with cash and valuables, registers and store safes overflowing with money. Plus there is all that yet unsold merchandise. Really, it just begs for someone to come and steal it.

Doing so would be the heist of the year, the talk of the season and who else but Team Rocket would be able to pull it off?

Of course, being that this is Team Rocket, they cannot help but want both the fortune and the fame. (Or is that infamy?) When you go big, you gotta go loud, and that is exactly what Team Rocket plans to do right at the biggest, busiest, most valuable market of them all: The Goldenrod City Christmas Market.

(Plus if everybody's attention is drawn to Goldenrod City where they've stationed their best and brightest, all the other Rocket members across the two regions will certainly be able to get away with their far more silent dastardly deeds with that much more ease)

Even among Christmas Markets, The Goldenrod City Christmas Markets is something special. There is no market more festive or more beautifully decorated. Winding through a part of town (having outgrown its old stadium home), the various stalls and shops sell valuables that cannot be bought anywhere else; valuable TMs, precious held items, even items like fossils and gems, Goldenrod has it all.

And soon. Team Rocket will have it all.

If a series of people in balaclava masks, heavy coats, and warm hats begin to filter into the Christmas Market as the evening wears on… well, it is the biggest shopping day of the year. And with the December chill nipping at everybody's noses and ears, there is nothing wrong with wanting to be warm while you shop… right?

---


Towards the end of the evening, as shoppers slowly start leaving for home, their wallets a lot lighter than when they arrived, the various intercoms that have been playing non-stop Christmas music for the last few weeks suddenly cut out with a strangle crackle. The bright and merry Christmas lights suddenly cut out, leaving the market flooded in darkness.

What's happening? A power outage? Did someone forget to pay the power bill?

But no, it's worse. Much worse.


“Prepare for trouble…
… and make it double...
You better watch out
We’re making you cry
Don’t make us shout
We’re telling you why
Team Rocket is coming to town!”


Dozens upon dozens upon dozens of warmly dressed market-goers suddenly throw off their coats, balaclavas and hats, revealing their Team Rocket uniforms underneath! The lights come back on again, but unlike the cheery twinkling of before, they are all a harsh red now.

Red like the Rocket R that has suddenly appeared everywhere. Even as many of the Rockets are swooping in to steal every TM, battle item, and cashbox that isn’t nailed down, other Rockets are putting Team Rocket’s mark on their surroundings: banners with the Rocket R (which had been hidden very cleverly within other decorations) are suddenly unfurled while the speakers blare something that is definitely not Christmas music. Even the large Christmas Tree at the centre of the market is a target, as a few grunts use their Psychic pokemon to tear the delicate beautiful ornaments of the tree, replacing them with the Rocket symbol.

And while there are always some guards and Jennies at the market, they are quickly surrounded by Rocket privates who deal with them with almost terrifying precision. It's as if they knew exactly what pokemon these Jennies were going to bring and made sure to tailor their teams to that.

With the Jennies dealt with, the chaos is complete. Who can help us now?


Who can save (the Saturday before) Christmas?


---





And as Goldenrod descends into Rocket chaos, all those who remained at home or who are out on the road will be treated to a very unusual visitor.

His arrival is heralded by the sound of sleigh bells, growing ever closer until suddenly you can spot it: a sleigh. And not just any sleigh. It’s the same sleigh you must have seen over and over in the past few weeks, gracing every advertisement, window display and Christmas decoration. It’s pulled by a singular Stantler which dashes through the air, its hooves skimming the clouds as it guides the sleigh lower and lower until it touches down onto the ground in front of your character (or, should you be inside, onto the roof). The single occupant of the sleigh rises, a massive red-clad man with an equally massive beard, and it is him, the OG (Original Gift-maker).

Santa’s jolly face is uncharacteristically serious as he extends a thickly gloved hand, his voice lacking its normal grandfatherly cheer.


“Trainer with your poke-might
Won’t you help me fight tonight?”


---








Event FAQ


What if my character does not want to help Santa?

Santa will understand. He'll look a little sad, but he will understand. He will depart, though he will give characters a candy cane before he goes.


Wait, is Santa giving us a lift to Goldenrod, then?

Yep! He can do that for everyone at the same time, because Santa is magic like that.


My character wants to help Santa, but they are not a fighter!

Not to worry! Even if your character is not a fighter, Santa can really use their help. You see, today Santa isn't just carting around gifts in his sleigh -- a quick reach into his sack will reveal First Aid kits and potion packs.

For anyone who wants to help out, but who aren't good at fighting, Santa would really appreciate it if they would be willing to help support others who are doing the fighting, and help heal any of the pokemon or people who may have gotten hurt by Team Rocket's shenanigans.


My character wants to help Santa and is willing to fight, but they don’t have any high level pokemon!

Worry not! Santa will provide! For everyone who wants to fight, but only has low-level pokemon, Santa will lend out two (2) of his little helpers: a Jynx in a fur-lined red dress and a Shiny Galar Zigzagoon (adorably candy-striped in red and white.) Both Pokemon are Level 60. Sadly, these are just on loan and Santa will need them back when the fight is over, but they will pose for selfies with you on request.


What about the non-Goldenrod locations? Is Santa sending anyone to fight off the Rocket operatives there?

They’re being taken care of by the Pokemon League, Gym Leaders, and all kinds of trainers from this world. Which doesn’t mean Team Rocket won’t steal some of what they’re aiming for anyway. It just means the other locations won’t be completely defenseless.


I have a Rocket character. Where are they supposed to be during this?

At the Christmas Market, of course! They’re one of the ‘best and the brightest.’


Wait, so when Team Rocket says they’re ‘stealing Christmas’ what they actually mean is that they’re robbing a bunch of places at once on the biggest shopping day of the year and taking over the Christmas Market?

Well, yeah. Did you think they were gonna go the Full Grinch? Nah. Raiding the cashboxes is way more profitable.


So, uh, how are we getting home again?

Time to walk-- No, no. Santa wouldn't do that to people. After everything has been dealt with, he'll give people a lift back to where he picked them up. Unless they'd much rather remain in Goldenrod City, in which case, that is fine too.

Comments

[uncutetomboy]

Oh. Oh no.

He's not even a person stuck being a Rocket. Suddenly she's glad she didn't ask after Connie's uncle or Dirk or Carly or Mr Solus.

But she gives him a tight little nod. "All the time," she says in a low voice. "People wake up in their base instead of with the Fake Mom and Team Rocket makes them work for them and they blackmail them to make them keep doing it, even after they get away from their base, by threatening the people here they came to care about. It happened to a few people I know and they're all nice, good people who wouldn't be yakuza if they had a choice."

(That... isn't entirely accurate. But as far as Akane knows, it's correct.)

[vrdantwind]

"Huh." Claude absorbs this information, looking...concerned, but mostly thoughtful. It's definitely important information to file away, but he recognizes it as not being particularly relevant to his immediate goals, so best to let it simmer on the back burner.

"I take it the newcomers are in the minority then, and most of these guys are natives?" He glances around at their surroundings again. There's a lot of Rockets around, even if most of the nearest ones are down for the count. "That or this place drags in way more people than I gave it credit for." He looks back to Akane again. "Well, I'm not interested in hurting anybody on either side - I just want to stop what they're doing here. I figured I might be able to find some staging point or command post if I could sneak through, and then get people on our side to direct their efforts there. Break them up."

[uncutetomboy]

"Yeah," Akane says quietly. "But if you see someone that feels familiar... they're probably one of the people who got forced into this. So go easy on them. I am." She hesitates a moment and adds, "They might not need a staging point or command post? Their secret base is here. I don't know where exactly or how to get there, but..." She shrugs.

[vrdantwind]

"Hey, I'm not really trying to fight anybody, except if they're doing something I feel like I have to stop...and I hope people who're having their hands forced wouldn't go so far. It doesn't seem like anyone's keeping too close track of what any one individual is doing here, so..."

He takes a step back from Akane. "Uh, this is looking kinda suspicious with you not attacking me, so we might need to start putting on some kind of show in case anyone's watching." He raises an eyebrow at her. "A Rocket member told me to fall back to HQ, so I guess you're right about the base being nearby...I'm surprised people just know it's here somewhere, though."

[uncutetomboy]

Right. Please block this slow, mostly pulled, highly telegraphed kick to the stomach then.

"Most people don't," she says. "But-- I used to have someone that was forced to work for them. And when she had to report to them in person, she'd go to Goldenrod."

[vrdantwind]

Claude's no martial artist, or even a close combat fighter in general, but Akane's making this as easy as possible so he doesn't have any real difficulty in deflecting that kick. He's having more difficulty figuring out how to make this look believable, when the girl's furious fists and feet now look like she's been heavily drugged compared to a minute or two ago...but this may be the best compromise there is, under the circumstances, since he doesn't think he could fake a fight with someone of her skill any better. He just hopes no one's watching too closely.

"I see," he says thoughtfully. "That makes more sense than a lot of people knowing and just no one having found it, I guess..." He offers a very weak and telegraphed attempt at a backhand, which he judges as sufficiently dismissive and villainous for the Rocket character he's playing. "I'm Claude. What's your name?"

[uncutetomboy]

She blocks the backhand effortlessly. "Akane Tendo," she replies. "And yeah, I don't think a lot of people know it's here. I only know because she ended up telling me about being forced to work for Team Rocket."

Her return attempt to punch him is still highly telegraphed, but maybe not as slow as the kick was. Hopefully he can avoid it, but otherwise she's mostly pulled the blow.

[vrdantwind]

"If people are being forced to work for Team Rocket, how have the ones who aren't particularly happy about it not brought it down from the inside yet?" Claude asks. He's able to deflect this blow, too; he's not a great close-quarters combatant, being an archer first and foremost, but he has had to defend himself on the battlefield before against people who were really trying to kill him, so it's fine if Akane isn't lobbing him the softest of softballs. (And he has used axes quite a bit, too, although they're not his weapon of choice.) "It feels like they'd be able to feed people on the outside insider information that would drop the whole organization like a house of cards...like telling people the location of their base."

[uncutetomboy]

"You haven't talked to Riku, have you?" Akane says, telegraphing another pulled punch. "He's got these inside sources from Team Rocket that did feed him a bunch of info, but he's only telling the Pokemon Guardian Corps--uh, that's his anti-Rocket organization that he's trying to make happen."

[vrdantwind]

"No, but it sounds like I definitely should," Claude says, weaving out of the way. "Honestly, I might be willing to join an organization like that, depending on what it's like...but how do I contact the guy?"

He goes for another blatantly obvious and rather slow hit of his own. "Why's he keeping it an internal affairs thing, though? Does he not trust the law enforcement this world's got? The Jennies and such?"

He wonders how much talking they can do under the guise of this rather lazily choreographed little fight. Is there a good way to exchange contact information for the two of them like this? He should probably ask. They could probably have this conversation much more conveniently over their Gears, and then they don't have to put on the world's worst interpretative dance performance while they're talking.

[uncutetomboy]

"Um, I don't think that Riku thinks they're good enough to deal with Team Rocket," Akane says, neatly blocking his obvious hit and going in with a pulled blow of her own. "And, well, he's kind of right? The Jennies got overwhelmed super fast when they tried to step in tonight. And, uh, Riku's on the pokegear channels for people from other worlds? I saw your post you just did about the Secret Santa. Maybe I can give you his contact info that way?"

[vrdantwind]

"I'd have to see them against Team Rocket under other circumstances," Claude replies, sidestepping the blow. "Obviously they were doing a lot of prep work ahead of time for this - look how they had everything ready to go. That probably means they'd scoped out their opposition in advance, too. Being able to prepare for something you know is coming but your opponent doesn't...that can give a huge advantage that anybody might find it hard to overcome. It doesn't mean the Jennies are usually competent, but I can't judge them just based on today."

He grins for a split second at Akane's suggestion - he doesn't want to wear the wrong kind of expression for a fight, either, in case anyone's watching. "That'd be perfect, actually. You can get my contact information from there, right? Tell me how to contact him in private?"

[uncutetomboy]

"I think so," she says. "I just need to find your, um, inbox and I think I can use the post thing you did asking about secret Santa stuff to do that eventually?"

It might take her a little while because she's from the 80s and tech is still new to her in a lot of ways. But eventually she can find it.