Big Apple, 3PM

[Jim Raynor]

Hours passed by. Ditto filled the time by doing anything that didn't return his thoughts to Mewtwo and the final battle that had been ripped from his deserving hands. This, in general, meant cycling through forms. It was during this time that Ditto discovered the extent of Omni's tinkering of his Transform ability.

Almost all first form Pokemon or those that had no evolutions were still easily attainable. No matter how he tried, however, he could not assume a form that possessed functional wings, which was quite disappointing. Ditto had the bright idea of becoming a Pidgeotto and soaring through this white hell hole, but Omni didn't care for that idea, did he?! That miserable little -

"Breathe in," Ditto said, his chest expanding slowly for a few seconds. "Breathe out." The air rushed from pursed lips. There. Calm. Now don't think about Mewtwo.

Yet while he switched through forms like Charmander and Squirtle with the similar ease he had in Kanto, their natural abilities were shy. Even with great coaxing, Charmander could not expel flame from his throat, nor could Squirtle fire a jet of water. That meant he would have to do his best to avoid conflict until he could resolve that issue, but thankfully he was a master manipulator. To be successful with the multitude of forms he donned required that he donned a matching personality as well. Part of his skill developed simply from use, but Ditto knew the majority of his smooth talking came about from natural talent. Another reason why he was sure he was Giovanni's chosen one.

And of course, all Pokemon designated 'Legendary' were off limits as well. Even thinking about morphing into Moltres or Lugia stabbed his body with pain.

Ditto caught the sight of a smooth steel arch where a rip in space previewed another world beyond the endless white. Two armed soldiers guarded the portal, dressed head to toe in white armour that helped them blend into the surroundings. Ditto eyed the rifles in their hands. He didn't recognise them as any technology he'd ever seen.

"Good ... uh ..." Ditto looked about for the sun, but didn't find it. "... day."

The stormtroopers looked at one another. "Coruscant is through this portal."

"Indeed," Ditto said smoothly, as if he knew fully what Coruscant was. "Summon my car."

"Uh, car?" one soldier said.

"Yes," Ditto said, tapping the red 'R' on his breast pocket. "My car."

"We don't work for you, sir," the other replied. "And I don't know what your symbol means either. But please, go through to Coruscant if you wish."

Don't work for me!? Don't those simpletons know who I am?! I'm fucking Giovanni, the leader of the greatest organisation in the whole world! Ditto's face tightened, his eyes sharpening. The nerve! The insubordination! How could they not know who he was masquerading as? Did they not know about Team Rocket? Did they not fear for their lives?

Ditto opened his mouth to spill his insulted thoughts at the guards, but his sense checked him. This Omniverse was different. Not a few hours ago had he considered the possibility that he was the only Pokemon in this peculiar realm. There was every chance that Giovanni wasn't here, and neither was his venerable organisation. Thus the respect the Team Rocket founder deserved was not understood here.

"Of course," Ditto said, his words dripping with sincerity. "Have a nice day, fellows."

That muddied the waters. Even when he didn't directly acknowledge it, Ditto had just plain assumed that Team Rocket existed here, in one way or another. The prestige and privilege Giovanni's form once demanded could no longer be counted on. In one way, he had lost an easy and reliable way to access information and money. On the other, it meant Giovanni's form belonged to him.

Ditto shuddered as a tingle ran down his spine. His mentor, his father, that inspirational image was his to mould!

With endless possibilities fluttering through his mind, Ditto walked toward the portal. It looked like someone had grabbed the air and torn a hole in it with their bare hands, revealing a hidden dimension beneath the white void. Through it he saw a huge city, metal buildings gleaming, people crowding the sidewalks, vehicles zooming across the roads. Even though it was a short glimpse, Ditto was sure it was much more impressive once on the other side.

Anything was better than the Nexus, anyway.

Ditto passed into the portal and his vision shimmered like a still pond disrupted by a single drop of water. As he blinked away the disturbance, the urban megalopolis assaulted his ears. The indiscernible conversations of thousands of pedestrians layered atop the growling of wheel-less cars as they whizzed over the roads, barely leaving an impression that they were ever there. He craned his neck skywards, where glorious buildings of steel and glass glittered in the sunlight, framing an impossibly blue and seamless sky. More airborne cars flowed along invisible roads like gusts of wind, high above his head, following some traffic system that was indiscernible to Ditto. Giant neon advertisement boards pulsed with the latest consumer products. One giant, elaborate skyscraper in the centre of the city towered over all else, striking an impressive and mighty image.

Coruscant. It was like a massive Saffron City, had the technology been given the chance to mature.

Despite the thick urbanisation, the portal to Coruscant hovered in a small park. Lush grass carpeted the ground. Leafy trees and blooming flowers added their natural beauty to the scene, intertwining with the artificial landscape in such a way as to make the viewer believe that nature's allure was always designed to be window dressing to man's unconquerable achievements. The air mingled with sweet, floral scents, covering any exhaust fumes that the vehicles were excreting, if they even did stink in the first place.

There was so much to do. To even get his bearings, he needed to know who lived here, who was in charge, what technology was available to him, how he would source his finances. Where to begin?

Ditto stepped into the throng herding themselves along the sidewalk. He jostled his way along, occasionally fighting for enough room so as to avoid smelling the person's hair in front of him. Ditto groaned in disgust. Didn't these humans appreciate the concept of personal space?

Stores and businesses flanked either side of the road. Everything was so pristine and manicured; litter and graffiti were entirely absent from the streets, every person wore smart business attire or glamorous evening wear, and not a single fight or scuffle was in sight.

Ditto thought for a moment he had landed in some sort of civilised paradise until he saw the stormtroopers. Most of them weren't overt in their presence; some surveyed the streets from the roof, fully armoured much like those that guarded the portal, while the majority mingled with the crowds, wearing plainclothes but unmistakably searching for troublemakers. This Coruscant may have been an amazing place to live aesthetically, but Ditto had a feeling it was a police state. His gaze returned to the skyline. That one skyscraper, rising above all else - that was the dictator's residence, no doubt.

Ditto wondered if he could find a picture of that dictator.

Slipping out of the constant people stream, Ditto entered a small coffee shop. The bell rung as the door struck it on opening. The store inside was filled with office workers sipping coffee around tables, talking quietly but without much warm or enthusiasm. Ditto placed his order for a latte macchiato, Giovanni's favourite coffee, and went back outside, finding the last empty table in the sun. While Ditto had never cared much for coffee, copying his form's habits was an important tool in becoming them. The most mundane and idiosyncratic behaviours of a target helped unite their personality, and Ditto saw through the fraudsters who did not absorb that lesson. Besides, Giovanni's genetic structure meant that while disguised as him, coffee actually tasted better.

Ditto surveyed Coruscant placidly, watching how the guards moved and weaved through the crowds, how their stoic gazes reached into every window and corner. This Coruscant had an amazingly disciplined and dedicated police force. If only Team Rocket had grunts with such skill and devotion, maybe Ditto would have killed Mewtwo before Omni whisked him away.

Mewtwo. His life's goal was within his reach, and that paltry, insignificant little -

Ditto took a deep breath. Thinking about his missed opportunity would only vex him. He needed a calm head to make his plan. There would be time to extract vengeance on Omni one day.

The bell above the cafe door tinkled and out stepped a waitress with Ditto's drink. She set it down gently in front of him with a pleasant smile. Ditto inclined his head and took a sip as she left. The ultimate Pokemon always thought it ironic that despite Giovanni's harsh persona, he liked his coffee milky and frothy. It was a great reminder that judging people by their appearances was the pinnacle of stupidity.

Especially for those who would judge Ditto in that manner.

Ditto wiped the foam from his lip with a napkin and leaned back in his chair. Arms folded over his chest, he watched the endless parade of sky cars overhead, considering his options. Ultimately, the end goal had already been plotted from the moment he stepped into the Omniverse; the eradication of Omni. The only question remaining was the method that he would take to accomplish it.

First the facts: Omni must be incredibly powerful if he could simply pluck Ditto from his world and toss him into his own little playground with no resistance whatsoever. If Ditto couldn't match his strength as a single opponent, then he needed allies, resources. He needed to stockpile this omnilium that Omni offered, for Ditto suspected it held greater power than its shiny surface intimated. He needed associates who would rise up and follow his whim, much like they once did when he wore Giovanni's skin in Kanto. An entire organisation that did whatever he told them to do.

Ditto grinned as he took another sip of coffee. He knew exactly what to do next.

Rebuild Team Rocket.

He briefly considered the concept of usurping the tyrant of this civilised megalopolis and turning these elite soldiers on Omni. With enough familiarity with the ruler's habits and enough time, he could do it, but that wasn't enough for Ditto. Being brought here, stolen from his life defining moment, was the biggest sleight anyone could have ever done to him. When Ditto marched up to that little rat bastard and tore out his throat, he would do it with the army he built from scratch, not using the dregs that already existed. Everything about Omni's death - everything - would be engineered from Ditto's own two hands.

Ditto upended the last of his coffee and plonked it back down on the table. A great plan, in theory, but how was he to start? Judging by the way the stormtroopers invisibly corralled the citizens, there seemed to be a lack of desperate, degenerate thugs that would do anything to score a quick buck. Those were often the foundations of criminal enterprises, and Team Rocket was no exception. Smart enough to follow orders but stupid enough to reject independent thought, they formed the workhorses of the organisation, performing the dirty but necessary jobs to build a thriving empire. Not to mention that they were incredibly dispensable.

But no utopia was ever perfect. The dark underbelly of Coruscant must be somewhere. Wherever society booms, criminals are always nearby. If Ditto couldn't see them, it was because they were somewhere else, not that they didn't exist. So the thugs of Coruscant were either locked in a jail cell, away from the sight of the average citizen, or there existed slums that Ditto hadn't encountered yet.

Ditto stood, his chair sliding backwards from him. Coruscant must be enormous; to go exploring on foot with no direction made no sense. He needed information. A lot of it.

The malleable Pokemon's gaze caught the glint of sunlight off a rooftop stormtrooper, and he knew the fastest way to clue himself up.

Ditto shoved his hands into his blazer pockets and ducked into a nearby alleyway. He took a deep breath and focused on the image of a stormtrooper. He knew he had moments to do this.

With all the speed he could muster, Ditto shed Giovanni's form and became a white clad stormtrooper.

"Hey you!"

The light of his transformation had barely faded when a soldier called out to him from the mouth of the alleyway.

DItto altered his voice to be an octave lower than his questioner. "Yes?"

"Did you see a man in a suit come down here?"

What was the best response? Say no one came down? But then the guard may question him further. "I did. He passed through to the other side." The alley was short, so his story should hold up.

"And what are you doing here?"

"I saw him enter the alleyway. I came to question him, but he already passed out the other side before I got here. Nothing suspicious."

The stormtrooper stayed silent for a moment. "Back to your post."

Ditto breathed out heavily through his nostrils and walked out the other side of the alleyway. That was close, but now he had a form that had authority. All he needed now was something to -

"Hey!"

The same stormtrooper returned to the alleyway. "What are you waiting for? All Squadron F members are to report down to Tier 4! Didn't you hear the call through your comms?"

Shit. Change the subject, Ditto. "Of course I did! Stop wasting time! Let's go!"