Inner Peace

By Mandy Owston

Professor Ivy sat at her lab table, staring at the computer monitor as her three young assistants, Millie, Tillie, and Lillie entered her research area, expectant looks on their bespectacled faces.

"Professor Ivy!" squealed Millie.

"Some kids are on their way to the island," added Tillie.

"They're the ones Professor Oak sent," chimed in Lillie.

A slow smile spread across Ivy's face. "Ah, the children are coming, and so quickly too," she mused, picking up the gold and silver Poke Ball she had commissioned from Kurt, the world-famous Poke Ball architect. It hadn't been cheap, but she knew it would serve its purpose well.

Ivy looked back to her screens of information, rechecking the files carefully collected several months ago from the confidential records of the Team Rocket database. Although Ivy's trio of assistants often appeared geeky and awkward, all three were experienced computer hackers. Between the three of them, the girls had managed to crack the passwords guarding Giovanni's personal Team Rocket records, and all the files were at Ivy's fingertips.

After scanning lists of unimportant information, filled with countless trivial details regarding the various Rocket members, Ivy had finally discovered the file she was searching for: failed TR schemes.

About a week ago, Ivy had realized that she had to secure the effectiveness of her own plans at any cost. The thought struck her that Team Rocket, headed by her old friend Giovanni, had been experiencing a severe downward turn in the last several years. She absently wondered if the cause of TR's problems might somehow have an impact on her own schemes, so she spent many hours searching for the main antagonists of Team Rocket.

The results came as a total shock to Ivy, who was expecting to hear that the Rockets were losing to Officer Jennies, various Police forces, or other local authorities. When she discovered that three young trainers and a Pikachu were causing major problems for two different Rocket teams, she was flabbergasted. It appeared that dumb luck followed these three children like a shadow, helping them to conquer even the most ingenious of schemes.

Ivy quickly did a search on the three trainers. It seemed that the girl was one of the four Sensational Sisters of Cerulean City, and the older boy used to run the Pewter City Gym. Nothing too spectacular.

But the youngest boy was someone she could work with. Not only was he from Pallet Town, home of her supposed "friend" Professor Oak, but he was also training to be a Pokemon Master. Here was someone she could distract, possibly for a very long time. According to her records, he had just finished competing in the Pokemon League, and should be returning home to Pallet very soon. Ivy smiled. Things were playing right into her hands. Obviously the boy would be anxious to be traveling once again, trying to capture new Pokemon and win more badges. While he was traipsing around the Orange Archipelago, she should have sufficient time to initiate her plan without these meddling kids to get in her way.

She had quickly contacted Professor Oak with a tantalizing bit of news: there was a new Poke Ball discovered on her home island of Valencia. She couldn't unravel its mysteries, but perhaps he might be able to discover what lurked within its gold and silver depths. Was there a young, trustworthy trainer who could be trusted to hand-deliver this Poke Ball, since no transporter would take it?

Ivy knew there was nothing inside, of course, but the possibility that the ball might contain a new species of Pokemon was more than intriguing enough to attract Professor Oak's attention. Oak was only too happy to suggest his young pupil Ash Ketchum, who was already becoming restless to begin another Pokemon journey, and soon Ash and his friends were on their way to Valencia Island.

Professor Ivy quickly began tidying up her desk, shoving papers into the huge bookshelf that took up an entire wall of her laboratory. Countless articles and treatises on Pokemon behavior and species variations littered the desk surface, and her own research journals were shoved in between issues of Pokemon Friend and Pokemon Watcher's Monthly magazines. She moved a stained coffee mug from the top of a stack of Pokemon Times issues and pulled out the notebook recording her latest study: the effects of Vileplume pollen on living creatures.

She gazed at her notes fondly. This was the most unorthodox study she'd ever performed, but also the most lucrative. It began entirely by accident, when one of her assisting researchers, a visiting scientist, had mistakenly breathed in a small amount of Vileplume pollen during an experiment. Nurse Joy hadn't been around that day, so Ivy had to care for the affected scientist herself, and was amazed by his response to the pollen. His senses became dulled, and he could no longer remember who he was, or what he was doing. When Ivy tried to calm him by repeating what she thought were relaxing phrases ("Please remain calm, everything is under control"), the drugged scientist began repeating everything she said, remaining in a deep trance. Kept away from the Vileplume pollen, the scientist began to gradually recover, and in a few days, was completely back to his old self, with no recollection of his time under the pollen's power.

Before this occurrence, Ivy had never considered world domination, but now the amazing prospect had taken root in her mind.

It was a simple concept, really.

To fill the world with a sense of peace and harmony... all Pokemon and humans sharing the world together... under Professor Ivy's ruling thumb. And all it would take were Vileplume flowers... garlands of peace. Yes, that sounded nice. The entire world would be at peace eventually... nobody would argue or disagree, or disrespect the environment, or cause any trouble at all if everyone was spaced-out on Vileplume pollen. Professor Ivy would make the world a better place... HER better place.

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