Giovanni-Team Rocket Boss

Born on December 7th, 1955, the man who would eventually become Giovanni Ausiello, the greatest crime-lord of the 20th century, was once only one of the many poor children growing up in the squalor of the New York City neighborhood known as the Bronx. His father, Antonio Ausiello, was a “made man” in the Mafia and frequently vented his occupational aggressions on the young Giovanni. His mother, Signora, was frequently inebriated with gin and rarely interfered with her husband's rampages (and was often a victim herself) and largely ignored Giovanni. One of the boy's only consolations during his early life was from a stray Meowth that he befriended and nurtured with tablescraps in the alleyway near his home.

The boy's life followed this pattern until he reached 11 years of age; it was then that he decided that his parents were of greater value to him dead than alive because of their modest life insurance policy. Thus he arranged for a young homeless boy to burn down his parent's apartment building, killing them while they slept. Giovanni maintained the alibi that he was working late at a print shop on the night that his parents died, and when the arsonist came for payment Giovanni murdered him to tie up any loose-ends.

Collecting their life insurance money, Giovanni enrolled in New York City's Pokemon League Academy on August 1st, 1966; it was here that Giovanni would begin to demonstrate brilliance as he excelled in all of his own courses, and even studied criminology as a hobby. Nevertheless, Giovanni was reluctant to tell his peers the truth about his own upbringing, and so he often played up the idea that he was an immigrant from Sicily. A charming young man, Giovanni managed to catch the eye of a young woman named Delia Ketchum, who he also had deep affections for; nevertheless, the two never began a relationship as they both focused on their lives as Pokemon Trainers.

During his first summer holiday from the Academy, Giovanni shrewdly used the remainder of his parent's life insurance policy to invest in the fledgling Tyco, Inc. For the next four intense years, Giovanni lived off of the money that his stock investment gained for him, and graduated with high honors from the Pokemon League. He was ready to begin his global journey, and his first act as a Pokemon Trainer was to officially capture the Meowth that had long been his companion.

Although most new Trainers were forced to stay in America because of the raging Cold War tensions, Giovanni was able to begin his global sojourn because of the vast amounts of money that Tyco, Inc. had earned him. Giovanni traveled Europe, encountering many Pokemon while simultaneously attending courses at Cambridge, the Sorbonne, and other European Universities. However, he never stayed long and would often drop out after one semester to resume his journey. While abroad Giovanni studied many disciplines, training himself and his Pokemon to intellectual and physical perfection while learning a variety of skills, including: chemistry, criminology, forensics, martial arts, disguise, and escape artistry.

Perhaps due to his upbringing or his heritage, Giovanni was unafraid of rubbing elbows with the criminal elements he encountered on his travels and made many contacts with them. It was then, during Giovanni's 20s, that he began to appreciate what power could be gained by operating outside the constraints of the law.

Nevertheless, during September 1976 Giovanni returned to the United States to participate in an invitational Pokemon Grand Prix to determine the new members of the Elite Four; his was a special case, as Giovanni was invited to participate in the American tournament despite having won all of his gym badges in Europe.

With his roster of Rhydon, Nidoking, Persian, and Kangaskhan Giovanni advanced to the semi-finals of the tournament, where he was defeated by the older and more experienced Agatha. Nevertheless, Giovanni had ranked in the top four of the Grand Prix and was thus entitled to a position as a member of the Elite Four. However, to the shock of the League, Giovanni chose to decline the offered position and asked instead to take the open position of New York City's Gym Leader instead. Unbeknownst to everyone at the Grand Prix, Giovanni's loss had supremely stunned him and he nursed an incredibly wounded sense of pride after his defeat; he had asked for the position of Gym Leader as a way to gain more power in order to challenge the Elite Four in the future.

In a few short months, Giovanni's lust for power grew to such strength that it drove him to recontact some of his criminal friends that he encountered during his early journeys; particularly those in Switzerland. Using these contacts, Giovanni blackmailed and threatened the Board of Directors at Tyco into allowing him total control over the company, which he promptly renamed the Molido Company. Under his leadership, the Molido Company would grow into a larger and more powerful business during the 1970s.

Sadly, the Mafia heard about the power that Antonio Ausiello's son was gaining, and decided that they wanted a portion of the profits. To this end, a coalition composed of the heads of various mob families met with Giovanni and “invited” him to become a made-man in exchange for a portion of his company's annual profits. To the mafia's great surprise, Giovanni presented them with a counteroffer: he would indeed join, but he would give his money only to the family he joined. As the young mogul expected, the various factions of the Mafia were soon fighting one another in a bid for Giovanni's membership. However, in a stunning move, Giovanni gathered various associates that were loyal to him into a secret society called Squadra Roccheto (italian for Team Rocket) that was modeled after the Mafia but under Giovanni's control. In short time, Squadra Roccheto had used the Molido Company's vast funds to squash the Mafia and Giovanni suddenly found himself the person in primary control of organized crime in New York City.

Although Giovanni didn't desire to be a crime-lord initially, he reasoned that it was better for him to benignly exercise his power over crime rather than create a power struggle that would result in brutal gang wars; meanwhile, Giovanni would use his criminal connections to help him rise unchallenged to mastery of the both the Pokemon and the business worlds. By 1986, Molido Company's legitimate business attachments stretched from telephone companies to personal gaming devices and Giovanni had created the illusion of being a caring philanthropist and kind-hearted but mighty Trainer; he had become the most powerful man in New York, both financially and in the world of Squadra Roccheto.

However, Giovanni would receive a letter from his childhood sweetheart Delia that would temporarily take his mind off of his relentless pursuit of power. Giovanni responded to the letter by flying to Delia's home in Walsenburg, Colorado to meet her personally; they spent the next months getting reacquainted with one another, with Giovanni trying (with success) to woo Delia; soon their rekindled friendship blossomed into an intense love affair.

Sadly, this relationship soon disintegrated when Delia (ever the sharp observer) began to suspect that not everything was as it seemed with Giovanni. Of course, when she confronted him about her suspicions, Giovanni denied that anything was amiss; from this moment on, a rift grew between the recently reunited couple. Everything culminated in one fateful evening: Delia marched into Giovanni's private study to deliver the news that she was pregnant, only to find him engaged in conversations with notable criminals. She was repulsed, and announced that she was returning to Colorado and never wanted to see Giovanni again. Delia left that same night, without ever telling Giovanni that she was pregnant.

Devastated, Giovanni reacted by repressing all of his feelings and focusing only on one thing: his pursuit of power. Where before Giovanni had been a corrupt but largely benign mogul, he had transformed overnight into a power-hungry monster. He would create havoc on the streets by selling weapons and Pokemon to the gangs of New York, while using Squadra Roccheto to keep blackmail files on any prospective threats to his power base. Squadra Roccheto, so named because of its sudden and rapid rise to power, soon became public and was quickly listed as the largest organized crime group in the world, with nobody possessing information about the mysterious man in charge of the group.

Abilites

Giovanni is one of the most shrewd businessmen in the world, a trait that has earned him an immense fortune; moreover, he is not above using cutthroat tactics, unethical practices, and illegal operations to maintain the success of his business empire.

Giovanni's corporate skill apply just as sharply in the Pokemon arena as they do in the boardroom. As a Trainer, he encounters and grooms many Pokemon to serve as powerful weapons on his team; he also funds many illegal experiments that are aimed at increasing the power of his Pokemon and granting him access to more powerful tools.

His roster of active Pokemon include: Persian, Nidoking, Kangaskhan, Nidoqueen, Mamoswine, and Rhyperior.