History of the Hideout
Team Rocket was a proud team of thieves founded in the Kanto Region of the Pokémon world. They were no slouches when it came to stealing and selling valuable pokémon on the black market, but they were limited in their small region and wanted to expand their work. While some regions were easier to expand into than others, the Sinnoh region proved especially difficult due to the presence of Team Galactic. After the destruction of a particularly expensive base at the hands of their rival team, Giovanni decided to pull out of the Sinnoh Region entirely, not willing to sacrifice any more men in an area that wouldn't be profitable.
However, several pokémon were left behind in the process. One in particular, an older Persian named Majesty, decided she wouldn't take defeat sitting down. She rallied the handful of recruits left in the area and set to work establishing their own base for Team Rocket, run completely by pokémon. It was slow goings at first, but soon the ragtag group of left behind pokémon managed to find a home in the Eterna Forest, finding it easy to hide from humans in the dense brush and plentiful trees. Team Galactic was none the wiser, as nobody was thinking to look for a team of pokémon instead of humans. Rocket Hideout was quickly established soon after, and the group started to grow as they recruited new members from the surrounding areas. When word of this Pokémon-run branch of Team Rocket reached the Kanto Region, Giovanni was shocked. He had never expected their pokémon to be the ones to outsmart Team Galactic and find hold in the Sinnoh Region all on their own. After establishing communications with the base with the help of pokémon translators, he decided to let the Hideout be. If they wanted to fight for the glory of Team Rocket and assist in making money for the group, who was he to stop them? Aside from sending over some much needed supplies and reinforcements, he left Rocket Hideout alone and let the pokemon make the decisions for how things should run.
Mace, a Pikachu with a wild spirit, was elected to become the General of the Hideout and formed an easy partnership with Majesty. While the Persian made sure things ran well behind the scenes, Mace would be center stage commanding attention and directing troops. As time passed the group continued to grow, and Majesty continued to age. She soon feared she was past her prime, and passed leadership onto Mace completely before retiring back to the Kanto region for some well earned rest. Mace struggled to run the Hideout on her own, and soon realized she would need help if she wanted to run the Hideout as efficiently as possible. She selected a handful of Elite recruits in the Hideout to become high ranking officers that would help to keep things running smoothly and ease the burden of leadership on the Pikachu's shoulders. One of these Elites (later dubbed 'Commanders'), a shiny Glaceon named Diamond, became close friends with Mace during her time as General.
When the time came for Mace to join Majesty in retirement, Diamond had fully expected to be selected as the new General. To her shock, she was bypassed in favor of a young upstart named Xack. This electric/fire type Pikachu was born and raised in Rocket Hideout, genetically altered to have an extra fire typing to give him an advantage in battle. Diamond was furious at this turn of events, and couldn't fathom why such a rowdy recruit had been chosen over her. Unbeknownst to Diamond, Xack was actually the son of Mace, giving the former General a soft spot for the young Pikachu. She hoped Xack would grow into a powerful General just like she had been, and grow he did. Wanting to be seen as stronger, Xack evolved with the help of a Thunderstone shortly after becoming the new General. While Diamond was disappointed in not being chosen to lead, she stayed as a high ranking officer under General Xack, smart enough to keep her distaste for the new General quiet.
The years passed once again, and soon it was time for another change in leadership. Xack's fire-typing had become unstable, affecting his health and ability to lead. He was forced to step down while he was still young for the good of the Hideout, and spent countless hours deciding who should be his replacement. Diamond was once again ready to take the role of General and to be rewarded for her loyalty, but was once again bypassed for a Mightyena named Tseng. While Xack had valued Diamond's help during his leadership, he saw the Glaceon as too old to lead anymore and had selected a recruit he felt was more fit to lead for many years to come. Tseng had also been born and raised in the Hideout like Xack, and had his typing altered to include the Psychic typing along with Dark. He was a level headed individual who prided himself on keeping things organized and efficient.
Tseng appointed his own team of Commanders and quickly set to work changing the Hideout to better fit his own image. This angered some older members who preferred for things to stay as they were, but the Mightyena was stubborn and continued with his work anyway. It took some time before his renovations were complete, but in the end the Hideout had never looked better (in his humble opinion, anyway). However it wasn't long before tragedy struck a few months later with an attack from Team Galactic. Their location had finally been discovered, and Team Galactic was doing their best to try and push the Team Rocket branch out of the Sinnoh region. General Tseng was horribly injured during their initial attack and without him to lead, the Hideout quickly fell into chaos. The battle lasted for weeks with the Hideout just barely surviving the assault. When the dust settled it became clear that many pokémon had abandoned the Hideout during the fight, choosing to flee instead of staying to fight. Most shocking of all was the absence of his own Commanders, including Diamond. While he had chosen them all in good faith, it was only Commander Grace that stayed loyal to the Hideout in times of hardship.
The two Diamond Ranks carried a heavy burden of repairing the damage done to the Hideout and leading the recruits as a much smaller force than before. Luckily Team Rocket heard of their need for assistance, and sent over two new Commanders from different branches to help fill the holes in the chain of command. Commander Anastasia, a Serperior/Florges fusion, hailed from the original Kanto branch, and quickly made herself at home as a new Diamond Rank. Their second new Diamond Rank was a Froslass/Sliggoo fusion named Haru who came from a brand new Rainbow Rocket branch in the Alola region. Unlike Anastasia, Haru knew she wouldn't be staying long in the Sinnoh Region, and set to finding her own replacement once repairs to the Hideout were complete.
A small Meowth/Carbink fusion by the name of Kit caught Haru's attention, and was quickly selected to be trained as the Commanders replacement. After gaining Tseng's approval, Commander Haru said her goodbye's and returned the to Alola region, leaving Kit to fill her shoes as the Hideout's newest Commander. While recruits did their best to settle in amongst all the new changes, things just didn't feel quite right. The Hideout just didn't feel like home anymore, and the looming threat of Team Galactic now knowing their location didn't help matters much. After much discussion and consideration, the Diamond Ranks decided it would be best for the Hideout to move. A new forest next to Lake Verity was selected, and the Hideout was re-located to an underground base.
After taking the time to decorate and settle in, this new base truly began to feel like home. However, it wouldn't truly be home without at least a little mayhem. Things took a turn for the weirder as many members of the Hideout were plagued with nightmares that only grew more intense over time. It was soon discovered that Darkrai had taken up residence in the new base and was tormenting the recruits it saw as 'evil'. An expedition was planned to seek out Darkrai's greatest rival, Cresselia, in hopes of getting their help. After long nights searching for the mythical pokémon, Cresselia was finally tracked down! Thankfully, Cresselia agreed to help the Rocket recruits and after a long and hard battle, Darkrai was chased away from the Hideout. The curse was finally lifted! A great celebration took place in the weeks that followed to mark a new era of peace and prosperity for Rocket Hideout.
It wasn't until several weeks later that Hideout recruits caught wind of Team Galactic being up to no good again (and not in a fun way)! They were researching something...ominous. Something that could spell disaster for not just Team Rocket, but for the entire world! After a bit of digging on their own part, Rocket Hideout discovered that Team Galactic had been kidnapping the Lake Guardians (Uxie, Azelf, and Mespirit) in hopes of using them and several legendary items to summon Palkia and Dialga. It was a race to the Spear Pillar as Recruits struggled to find a way to stop the summons to no avail.
Palkia and Dialga were indeed summoned, and their ensuing chaos between them caused the Red Chain to break, leading to a power surge and the apparition of a portal to the Distortion World. Some recruits fell in, leading to a confusing maze of a world that they struggled to find a way out of, while others remained on the outside, doing their best to battle Giratina and push them back into the Distortion World. After a great effort the battle was done, and all of the recruits were fished out of the Distortion World. The chaos had finally ended it seemed, and Team Galactic had been stopped.
Sensing that everyone needed a break, the Diamond Ranks brought all of the Hideout members on a vacation to the beach! While many goofed off and played around, others explored the area and found a group of strange looking eggs! They were brought back for inspection and were discovered to be Phione upon hatching. While recruits tried to take care of the new babies, they seemed to be driven by instinct as they wandered away to a hidden cave, surrounded by what seemed like a mirage! The Mirage Cave seemed to be infinite, even leading completely underwater in parts. However, this water was unusual in the fact that anyone could still breathe in it, not just water types. Once reaching the end of the labyrinth the Hideout discovered Manaphy awaiting the return of their new children, and were rewarded with treasure and gems that were discovered in the cave as well! What an exciting vacation!
Event's had come and gone within the hideout, and so did new and old recruits. There was also a sense of change in the air, and a change no one was expecting to happen. Tseng, ripe in age, had decided it would be better if he retired to Platinum rank to give love and attention to his children since being General took away from that time he wished to spare to them. So, with a heavy heart, he passed on his title to Commander Anastasia who would be known as General Anastasia for a short time. From what has been told from the higher ranks Anastasia didn't think she fit the role she was given, and would visibly be stressed from the workload given to her. When she had time to herself she'd locked herself away in her room for a couple hours at a time while handling her new position. She was secretly planning to seek out more help from outside of the hideout since there were very little higher-up's currently and they were juggling far too much. She noticed this during her time as commander, and wanted to fix it before she eventually stepped down.
During the past intense months Anastasia changed quite a few things, and had rebuilt how future commanders would be chosen as well as created a new rank to delegate tasks between the higher-up's more evenly. It was named Quartz Rank, and this rank represented a group of recruits that went above and beyond any normal mon, that had clever wits, heart, and mind that wished aid the hideout in smaller ways that made a significant difference. And, once her plans were completed she used the aid of Commander Kit, and Roger to send out a call to look for candidates to fill in the positions she had opened up. These positions were filled up by mons within the hideout, and outside of the hideout from different places. These new higher-up's were Astraea soon replaced with Piper a mighty pirate of the seas, Tyrael the poised warrior, Grace a loving motherly figure familiar with high ranking positions, Juno a sunny green bean, and Thatcher the orderly fighter.
That's not all that was left though, Anastasia needed to find a replacement for herself despite how the hideout would feel about a complete outsider leading them. She put all her focus into this task, and sent out a message to all branches of Team Rocket looking for a pokémon that deserved to be General, had a renowned reputation, could work in a team, and could fulfill the responsibilities with little difficulties. After weeks of going through papers she was sent back she'd picked mon called Dottie who met all these requirements she set up, and soon sent a message about wanting her to lead Rocket Hideout.
Once Dottie had arrived she had been pulled into a meeting with the old and new higher-up's. She was then rewarded the title General after swearing to do her utmost best to be a good, fair, and empathetic General while she lead this role. After this Anastasia finally retired to Platinum rank. Dottie seemed determined to prove she could fit this role while in the Rocket Hideout.
TBC...