Team Rocket

**Team Rocket** is Earth-Pokemon's most powerful evil organization. The group was originally formed by Giovanni and ran a massive Pokemon stealing and smuggling racket, while also aiming to take over the Kanto region. This version of the group was defeated by Cynthia, which led to Giovanni's arrest. Team Rocket went dormant for a number of years until it was re-formed by Lusamine, who was obsessed with capturing and wedgieing female Pokemon trainers from around the world.

## Overview

Team Rocket was originally created by the Kanto Gym Leader Giovanni, who sought to amass enough power to take over the world. To this end, he founded the organization for the purpose of stealing and smuggling Pokemon and becoming incredibly wealthy as a result. The original version of Team Rocket had hundreds of thousands of agents around the world, and they frequently used Pokemon to advance their causes.

Following Giovanni's arrest and Lusamine's takeover of Team Rocket, the organization has changed in some big ways. Instead of stealing Pokemon, Lusamine's main goal is now to kidnap powerful female trainers from around the world (though they do still captured Pokemon on occasion). The organization's numbers are now much smaller as a result of their efforts to keep their mission under wraps, but their agents are much better trained in actual espionage and spywork. As a result, Team Rocket rarely use their own Pokemon in their operations anymore, unless it is to lure a potential victim into a trap.

Lusamine rules the new Team Rocket from the Aether Paradise in Alola, though the organization still has bases around the world.

## History

Despite the fact that he was already a well-known and highly respected Gym Leader, Giovanni wanted even more wealth and power. In order to fulfill this desire, he decided to form an organization that he could use to slowly amass power and eventually take over the world. The newly-formed Team Rocket quickly ballooned in numbers, rapidly becoming the world's largest criminal organization. The group stole and smuggled Pokemon around the world, and Giovanni became incredibly rich and powerful, just as he'd always wanted.

At some point, a trainer named Cynthia caught on to what Team Rocket was doing and decided to take this down herself, traveling all the way to Kanto from her home region of Sinnoh. This proved to be a poor decision, as the headstrong trainer was captured and kept as a wedgied prisoner by Giovanni for days. However, Cynthia eventually managed to escape and defeat the Team Rocket boss in a Pokemon battle that destroyed the organization's headquarters. Giovanni and a number of other Team Rocket agents were arrested by the International Police, and Cynthia eventually went on to become the champion of the Sinnoh region. Giovanni was sentenced to life in prison and sent to the Matsuda Maximum Security Prison in Unova, but he still managed to utilize a number of his connections and resources (including his adopted daughter Domino) from behind bars.

Team Rocket sat dormant for years until it was reformed by Lusamine, the head of the Aether Foundation. She had devised a bold plan to stealthily capture some of the world's most powerful female Pokemon trainers, spurred on by the voice of her deceased husband Mohn. What she didn't know was that she was actually being manipulated by the sinister organization Obsidian, who existed on another world and were secretly providing her with resources and technology. In order to carry out her plan, Lusamine brought back a number of agents who were part of Team Rocket during Giovanni's tenure, including Domino, Annie, Oakley and Ariana. She also recruited several new members, including Sird (who was secretly a spy for Team Galactic), the gym leader Sabrina (whom Giovanni had previously tried to strike an alliance with) and Faba, the Aether Foundation's head scientist. Domino informed Giovanni of the organization's reformation and continued to provide him with updates on Lusamine's plan.

As part of the organization's agreement with Sabrina, agents Butch and Cassidy were sent to the Pokemon Tower in Kanto to capture a Ghost-Type Pokemon, with the intention being that it would cover her type weakness as a Psychic-type trainer. In order to draw out the Pokemon, the two agents ambushed and wedgie a Hex Maniac named McKenna, using her as bait. However, the Pokemon ended up taking Butch and Cassidy instead of McKenna, setting her free and teleporting her away from the Tower.

Annie and Oakley were sent to the Kanto region to steal Pokemon from various Pokemon Centers. After raiding the Pokemon Center on Route 10 (and wedgieing the resident Nurse Joy), the two attempted to break into the Kanto Power Plant in order to catch the legendary Pokemon Zapdos. Unfortunately for them, they were caught and locked up at the Cerulean City Police Department under the watchful eye of Officer Jenny. While Jenny was getting Joy's statement about her encounter with the two agents, Domino snuck into the building, wedgied Joy and Jenny, and escaped with her fellow agents.

Domino, Annie and Oakley then continued to embark on missions to capture various powerful trainers, including Nessa, Sonia, Flannery, Shelly and Clair. At some point, Cynthia became aware of the revived Team Rocket and formed an alliance that would, in theory, work together to stop them. Cynthia's potential recruits proved to be disorganized, and by the time everyone began to realize the true scope of the threat that Team Rocket posed, several more trainers had already been taken, including Lorelei, Professor Ivy, Gardenia, Skyla, Elesa and Professor Juniper.

After Team Rocket came into possession of the mysterious G.S. Ball, Sird stole it for her masters at Team Galactic, who sought to open it and uncover its secrets. She managed to open the ball, revealing a family photo of Giovanni, Delia Ketchum and their son Ash in front of their house. Sird travelled to Pallet Town and shoulder wedgied Delia before beginning to interrogate her, but she was intercepted and defeated by Domino, who freed Delia and brought Sird back to Team Rocket headquarters to answer to Lusamine.

As part of her preparations to send the captured trainers to Obsidian's universe, Lusamine had Team Rocket raid Rose Tower in Galar and steal Cyrus's portal machine from the Macro Cosmos Group. Domino and Sabrina led the operation, which proved to be a massive success and led to the acquisition of both the portal device and Macro Cosmos' vice president, Oleana.

## Known Members

### Current Members

* Lusamine - leader
* Domino - lieutenant
* Sabrina - former Gym Leader of Saffron City, lieutenant
* Ariana - admin
* Faba - head scientist
* Annie - agent
* Oakley - agent
* Butch - agent, captured by ghost of Marowak
* Cassidy - agent, captured by ghost of Marowak

### Former Members

* Giovanni - founder and leader, incarcerated
* Sird - lieutenant, secretly a spy for Team Galactic

## Appearances

Rocket Damsel Quest
* Hex Maniac McKenna and the Pokemon Tower
* Nurse Joy and the Pokemon Center Raid
* Officer Jenny and Nurse Joy's Centaur Wedgie
* Professor Sonia Taken Prisoner
* Lavaridge Wedgie Showdown
* Capturing Clair
* Redhead Fever
* Trouble in the Orange Islands
* No Signs of a Struggle
* Return to the Pokemon Tower
* Tree Hugger
* Maximum Security
* The Unovan Triple threat
* Defying a Direct Order
* Kanto Stop, Won't Stop
* Emergency Meeting