"First, let us welcome everyone for taking the time to participate in this meeting. I suppose that, with the abilities all of you possess, you more or less should already know something about the true content that will be discussed in this meeting, right?"
At some unknown point, a Persian appeared beside Giovanni. He smiled while stroking Persian's soft fur.
This was a holographic image, so everyone could see with complete clarity what Giovanni was doing and what expression he had.
Of course, Giovanni and Cain could also clearly see each of those present.
The first person who appeared before Cain's eyes was Brad, who represented Team Heaven of the Hoenn region.
This time Cain was participating with the identity of deputy leader of Team Rocket, so Team Heaven would be represented by Brad instead of Cain in this meeting. After all, among those present, apart from Giovanni, Cain, and Brad, the others did not know who the true leader of Team Heaven was.
This was also because Cain had always acted like a boss who left everything in the hands of others, handing Team Heaven over to his subordinates to administer.
That, under these circumstances, Team Heaven could still reach such a scale forced one to admit that those administrators of Team Heaven to whom Cain had entrusted important responsibilities, although perhaps they were not up to standard in terms of strength, did possess unquestionable management methods.
Then, following the position behind Brad, there was the leader of Team Galactic from the Sinnoh region. He had blue hair, a cold expression, and wore very sober and efficient attire.
Cyrus, leader of Team Galactic!
On the other side of Cyrus was the leader of Team Plasma from the Unova region, or rather, the king of Team Plasma. He had beautiful emerald-green hair and a cap covering his hair. On his face he wore a barely visible smile, seeming very handsome and young, at most only a little older than Cain.
N, the king of Team Plasma!
Regarding Team Plasma, Cain still knew some things, because Team Plasma was also an extremely peculiar organization. Its nominal leader was N, known as king, but N could not be considered a qualified leader of an underground force, because his love for Pokémon was absolutely not something the leader of an underworld organization should possess.
From Cain's point of view, the true ruler of Team Plasma should be N's adoptive father, Ghetsis, one of the Seven Sages of Team Plasma.
Team Plasma was an organization jointly ruled by its king and the Seven Sages, and this Ghetsis was the true mastermind behind the scenes. He had simply set his eyes on N's talent and strength, wanting to use him to achieve his own objectives. But, evidently, right now N knew nothing about this; he was still immersed in the title of king of Team Plasma.
Feeling Cain's gaze, N directed his eyes toward him with a trace of doubt and curiosity.
Noticing N's gaze, Cain directly passed over him and looked toward the next person: Lysandre, with orange hair, like flames, or like a male lion.
This was also a person Cain knew well, so his gaze did not stay too long on Lysandre. Without showing anything in his expression, he looked toward Lusamine, with yellow hair, who was beside him. The president of the Aether Foundation, the person betrayed by Kael Drako of the Sacred Church.
After looking around this entire circle, Cain suddenly understood why, in the future, Giovanni would choose the name Team Rainbow Rocket.
Because if Cain had not intervened, in reality, he and Brad, who were sitting here, should have been replaced by Maxie of Team Magma and Archie of Team Aqua. One was red, and the other dark blue.
Added to Lysandre, who was orange; Lusamine, who was yellow; N or Ghetsis, who was emerald green; and Cyrus, who was light blue, except for the absence of the color purple, did they not exactly gather the seven colors of the rainbow?
It truly was... an extremely fitting name!
"Leader Giovanni, I do not know who this person beside me is. It seems I have never seen him before. Could you introduce him to us?" The first one to speak was Lusamine.
She looked at Cain, who was sitting on the other side of her. Since he was the only person in the entire room concealing his identity, it was not only Lusamine who felt curious.
Hearing her, Giovanni let out a hearty laugh and said, "This is the deputy leader of my Team Rocket! Do not underestimate him just because he is a deputy leader. He is a super expert capable of comparing with a Champion!"
Upon hearing Giovanni's explanation, the expressions of most of those present changed.
Compare with a Champion?
That was not a description that could be used for just anyone!
A Champion represented the highest combat power of a region. To say it more precisely, they were very likely the strongest person in that region.
Although those present were all leaders of underground forces or public forces from different regions, no one dared to say that they could compare with a Champion.
If they truly could compare with a Champion, they would not have to act with so many restrictions; long ago, they could already have placed their own forces out on the table.
Precisely because they could not directly confront the maximum combat power of the regional leagues, they had no choice but to remain in the shadows, secretly threatening the League so that it would not be willing to suffer great losses by trying to exterminate them.
The reason Giovanni could say so firmly that Cain could compare with a Champion was simply because Cain did not need to compare with one.
He was a Champion!
But in the eyes of Lusamine and the others who did not know Cain, this only seemed like Giovanni's exaggeration.
What they did not know was that Giovanni was a person capable of doing anything, except lying.
However, even if this deputy leader was not at the level of a Champion, at the very least he could resist one for a time, and that was already enough. Because most of them did not possess such strength.
If it were an Elite Four, it would still be different. Each one of them could face one. But if it were a Champion, no.
Lusamine, who had originally wanted to look for trouble with Cain, became momentarily speechless after hearing Giovanni raise him so highly.
She knew what it represented for this group of people to be sitting here.
To a great extent, the future underground action guidelines of the seven great regions of the Pokémon world would probably be decided here, and each seat represented one vote.
Here, any vote could decide the direction of the entire world's development, so no one could afford not to attach importance to it.
In contrast, N looked thoughtfully at Cain. The fighting desire he did not conceal at all could be felt by everyone present.
(End of chapter)