"Go on then. What are you here for?"
The middle-aged man looked calmly at the two humans and their Pokémon.
Beside him, Mr. Mime maintained its smile while continuously releasing psychic power.
"We're Team Rocket! Team Rocket!"
The blonde woman shouted in frustration, completely losing her composure.
Being caught this easily felt humiliating to her.
The middle-aged man rubbed his forehead and sighed.
Were all the new recruits in the organization this reckless lately? What exactly were they being taught at the academy?
The green-haired man noticed something was off.
With such a large Team Rocket logo on their uniforms, there was no way the other party hadn't noticed.
"When Slowpoke becomes incredibly intelligent…"
He hesitantly spoke the recognition code.
"…then it's time to drink a cup of bitter tea."
"Snap."
The middle-aged man replied as he snapped his fingers.
"Ow—!"
The two humans dropped from midair and slammed into the ground, crying out in pain.
"So you're the contact person? Then why did you attack us? Do you even know—"
The blonde woman jumped to her feet and angrily began shouting at the man.
"Mimo~"
Mr. Mime's smile slowly faded.
This human female, really had no brains at all.
When Mr. Mime stopped smiling, it looked genuinely unsettling, probably because it resembled a human too closely.
"Calm down, Cassidy."
The green-haired man called out to his partner, trying to stop her.
Unfortunately, it was too late.
"Mr. Mime."
Another quiet command.
With a surge of psychic energy, Cassidy was lifted back into the air.
"Looks like you're the only one in your team capable of communication."
The middle-aged man said regretfully as he looked at the green-haired man.
"Cassidy's just a bit short-tempered,"
her partner Butch said helplessly.
He was already used to it.
"Follow me. This isn't the place to talk."
The man glanced around before turning and walking off.
"Yes. May I ask how we should address you?"
Butch asked.
"Just call me Mr. Sai," the man replied.
Inside a small wooden cabin near the forest, Mr. Sai gestured for Mr. Mime to release Cassidy.
She still hit the ground painfully, but this time she didn't start yelling, she simply stared at Mr. Sai with a sharp glare.
Mr. Sai ignored her completely and pulled a Poké Ball from a drawer.
"Catch."
He tossed it to Butch.
Butch looked at it in confusion.
"That's Drowzee. You didn't seriously think you could enter Psychic Town with just a Rattata, did you?"
Mr. Sai showed a mocking smile.
Before Cassidy could speak, he continued:
"This Pokémon is yours from now on. Consider it a reward for your first official mission."
He shook his head.
"I just hope you don't waste it. I honestly don't know how Instructor Viper let you pass the final assessment."
He couldn't understand why headquarters would give such a valuable Psychic-type Pokémon to a rookie duo.
But there was nothing he could do.
He was just a contact agent.
The only thing he truly owned was the Mr. Mime that had stayed with him for many years.
He had no authority in this matter—
only orders to follow.
"You don't need to worry about that. We have our own strengths."
Cassidy snorted and took the Poké Ball from Butch.
"It's already been conditioned. You can command it immediately, just don't give overly complex orders."
Mr. Sai said something chilling in an indifferent tone.
Cassidy and Butch were unfazed.
After all, this was Team Rocket.
Wasn't that normal?
"Let's go, Batch. Time to find our target."
Cassidy waved her hand and headed outside.
"Sorry about this. Hopefully we'll meet again
Cassidy, it's Butch, not—can you please—"
Butch bowed hurriedly to Mr. Sai before rushing after her, still complaining.
"Hm?"
Cassidy shot him a sideways glance.
Butch instantly shut up.
"Thump."
Walking with his head lowered, Butch walked straight into Cassidy.
They had stopped at the outskirts of Psychic Town.
"We're not going in?"
He asked instinctively.
"No rush."
A cunning glint appeared in Cassidy's eyes.
Although Butch appeared to be the one in charge externally, ever since they had teamed up, every unofficial mission plan had been designed by Cassidy.
She was hot-tempered, but never stupid.
"For a first official mission, it's better to stay steady," Butch said, unusually offering advice.
"No. A recruitment mission, especially one that might fail, won't show our capabilities at all."
Cassidy snorted.
She'd heard that that violent woman's first mission was a field operation. There was no way she'd allow herself to look inferior.
"We're not Jessie and James, those two failures! Success is the only thing we care about!"
Cassidy said viciously.
Butch sighed and nodded.
"What's the plan?"
He asked.
"Ghost-type Pokémon and Psychic-type Pokémon naturally clash, even here.
So tell me, what do you think would happen if a Psychic-type Pokémon raised in Psychic Town attacked the Ghost-types in the Ghost Forest?"
Cassidy rolled the Poké Ball containing Drowzee in her hand thoughtfully.
"That would be… very interesting."
Butch raised an eyebrow, meeting her gaze.
"You brought the materials?"
"All of it. In my backpack."
"Then let's begin."
After final confirmation, Cassidy gave the order.
Meanwhile, Silas was hopelessly lost inside Psychic Town.
The town's layout was far too bizarre.
"Ral."
The Ralts on his shoulder raised its little hand and pointed out the correct path.
Everything in Psychic Town was designed specifically for Psychic-type Pokémon.
Only Pokémon with psychic abilities could move freely here.
Ghost-types could manage as well—
after all, they could simply pass through walls.
Soon, Silas stopped in front of a house filled with surreal colors.
From the outside, it looked as though the walls were covered in a starry sky.
Without hesitation, Silas pushed the door open.
"Ling—ling."
A clear, bell-like cry rang out.
A wind-chime-shaped Pokémon floated inside the room.
Its body bore several red markings,
with long rectangular streamers hanging beneath it, and a suction-cup structure atop its head.
It was Chimecho, a Psychic-type Pokémon primarily found in the Hoenn region.
"Hello."
"Ral."
Silas and Ralts raised their hands in greeting.
Psychic-type Pokémon were generally intelligent and politeness was essential when visiting.
"Chime."
Chimecho happily swayed its body, producing a beautiful sound.
This Pokémon possessed as many as seven different vocal tones used for communication, making it one of the Pokémon with the greatest variety of "dialects."
Precisely because of its mastery over sound, Chimecho excelled at generating ultrasonic waves to strike enemies.
Despite its small size, only about 0.6 meters tall on average even when including its suction cup and streamers, its special-attack power was remarkably impressive.
In addition, Chimecho had several healing moves in its move pool, making it a highly capable support Pokémon.
Worth noting was that Chimecho's method of producing offspring differed from most Pokémon.
When the mother Chimecho held a specific incense, Pure Incense, the offspring would be Chingling.
When the father Chimecho held the same incense and bred with Ditto, the resulting egg would also hatch into Chingling.
If no incense was held, the egg would hatch directly into Chimecho, rather than its baby form.
Similar breeding mechanics applied to other Pokémon families, such as:
Marill line (baby form: Azurill)
Wobbuffet (Wynaut)
Roselia line (Budew)
Sudowoodo (Bonsly)
Mr. Mime (Mime Jr.)
Chansey line (Happiny)
Snorlax (Munchlax)
Mantine (Mantyke)
Whether or not these Pokémon held specific incense would determine which Pokémon hatched from the egg.
They were referred to as baby Pokémon primarily because evolving them into their standard forms required special conditions.
A large portion of them evolved through high friendship.
Professor Rowan's research team believed these conditions existed to complete and stabilize their abilities.
Before reaching their standard forms, baby Pokémon had extremely limited combat strength, comparable to an unlucky Togepi.
Of course, lucky Togepi didn't count.
Those were strong anyway.
"A guest has arrived. Please, come in."
Accompanied by Chimecho's ringing sound, a trembling elderly female voice drifted out from the inner room, frail like a candle flickering in the wind.
"Sorry for disturbing you."
Silas replied respectfully and pushed open the wooden door.
An elderly woman, her face deeply lined with wrinkles, sat cross-legged behind a wooden table.
"Please, have a seat."
She gestured toward him with a hand as thin as withered branches.
Silas hurried over and sat down cross-legged in front of the table in an awkward, unfamiliar posture.
Respecting the elderly was a traditional virtue.
"So you're the one Sabrina mentioned."
The old woman shuffled a deck of Pokémon-style tarot cards as she spoke.
"Yes, Granny. I came this time hoping this little one can learn how to train its psychic abilities."
Silas patted Ralts, which had climbed from his shoulder onto his lap.
Ralts blinked as it looked at the extremely aged human woman across from it.
For some reason, it felt she was dangerous.
Yet its psychic senses told it she was kind and gentle.
The contradiction made Ralts unconsciously scrunch up its small face.
"A child with extraordinary potential,"
Granny Yuanqing said meaningfully.
Silas didn't realize Ralts' internal conflict. He assumed it was simply because Granny Yuanqing was deeply familiar with Psychic-type Pokémon.
After all, according to Sabrina, Granny Yuanqing was the greatest fortune-teller in the world.
If ordinary fortune-tellers might be frauds, then one acknowledged by Sabrina unquestionably possessed real ability.
"Don't rush. Let us begin with a reading."
Granny Yuanqing gestured for Silas to remain silent.
She solemnly shuffled four differently colored sets of Pokémon tarot cards.
Silas didn't dare speak.
The entire room fell into silence.
"Tap."
After an unknown amount of time, Granny Yuanqing placed the cards face-down on the wooden table.
"Next, please choose one flower you wish to gain and one you wish to discard from these five bundles of different colors."
As if performing a magic trick, she pulled out five vivid flowers from beneath the table.
Ralts stared down in disbelief.
It hadn't sensed anything at all.
"Then blue and black."
Silas answered almost without thinking.
He didn't know why such strange colors were involved, but he chose anyway.
Granny Yuanqing raised her head in mild surprise.
"Is something wrong, Granny Yuanqing? Should I have thought longer?"
Silas scratched his head.
"No. The more decisive, the better. The more decisive, the better."
She chuckled warmly.
"Now, draw three cards you desire from this deck."
She pushed the shuffled cards toward him.
Still decisive, Silas drew the top three cards directly.
Granny Yuanqing, seemingly used to this, slowly flipped them over.
Slowpoke. Alakazam. And—
When Silas saw the familiar figure on the final card, his pupils contracted sharply.
The last card was Mewtwo.
This was unbelievable.
Although Mewtwo had indeed been created by now, Giovanni had hidden it extremely well.
Aside from a handful of people knowing that the Viridian Gym Leader possessed a mysterious armored Pokémon, most people didn't even know such a Pokémon existed, let alone its true appearance beneath the armor.
"Hm… what a peculiar Pokémon."
Granny Yuanqing fell into thought as she gazed at the unfamiliar figure.
Silas froze.
Then his scalp tingled.
Fortunately, after so long in the Pokémon world, he was mentally prepared for extraordinary phenomena.
"Wasn't this card prepared in advance?"
He asked casually.
"The cards are prepared by me.
But destiny is chosen by you."
Granny Yuanqing looked up at him, revealing her remaining two white teeth.
"A Pokémon unknown even to me has appeared. It seems this reading cannot provide you with an answer. I'm truly sorry for wasting your time."
Before Silas could respond, she had already packed away all the tools, leaving him no chance to probe further.
Silas smiled helplessly.
He felt like he'd been tricked somehow.
But that wasn't why he came anyway.
"Well then…"
He rubbed his hands awkwardly.
"This is a training method exclusive to Ralts and Kirlia. Take it."
Granny Yuanqing swiftly pulled a yellowed notebook from her robe and tossed it to Silas.
"Thank you for your patronage.
That will be 100,000 Poké Dollars."
She grinned again.
"Bang."
Staring at the closed door, thinking of the six-digit sum that had vanished from his bank account, and holding the yellowed notebook in his hands—
If this place hadn't been recommended by Sabrina, Silas would've thought he'd been scammed.
Ralts, perched on his shoulder, secretly sighed in relief.
Then it suddenly looked toward the distance.
"Gengar—!"
A cold, furious cry echoed across the entire town.
Then—
"BOOM!"
A massive explosion followed.
"What is that…?"
Silas looked toward the source.
Smoke billowed. Buildings were collapsing.
"A Pokémon attack on the town?!"
The thought flashed through his mind.
But that didn't make sense.
Around Psychic Town, only the Ghost-types from the Ghost Forest existed.
Surely Water-types weren't attacking.
And those Ghost-types hadn't disturbed humans for a very long time, aside from occasionally playing around in dreams and leaving people exhausted the next day.
Humans, likewise, wouldn't provoke them.
Judging by the sound just now, that was probably Gengar.
But this level of destruction was excessive.
Feeling the energy fluctuations in the distance, Silas sucked in a sharp breath.
Inside the house.
Despite the tremors, Granny Yuanqing calmly flipped through a book.
"Ignorance and wisdom. Creation and the unknown. Fate truly is fascinating."
Her aged voice echoed softly in the room.
As for the chaos outside, she didn't seem to care at all.
"Hahahahaha! I knew it, I'm the strongest!"
Outside Psychic Town, sensing the distant disturbance, Cassidy stood with hands on her hips and laughed wildly.
"It's a shame about that Drowzee. Looks like it's ruined, probably needs years to recover."
Butch smacked his lips as he looked at the battered Drowzee lying on the ground.
"Trash like that is only good for being used once," Cassidy said coldly.
"Didn't Dr. Sebo say he needed Psychic-types for experiments? Perfect, send this thing to him."
Butch nodded.
Neither of them had any intention of treating Drowzee.
Why waste time, effort, and money when they could just get better Pokémon?
Drowzee's eyes had already turned dull and gray.
Butch recalled it into its Poké Ball.
"Next, let's see how our target reacts.
Once things spiral out of control, that'll be our best chance to get close."
Cassidy hadn't forgotten their true objective.
Provoking the Ghost-types was merely a bonus.
And she didn't believe a single Gengar could cause that much trouble.
From her probing of Mr. Sai earlier, Cassidy had already roughly estimated the strength of Psychic Town's residents.
"Move it, move it! Everyone, get moving!"
The elderly in Psychic Town calmly directed the women and children.
"Madam Sanada, something's not right."
A burly man approached a plump woman.
"Hmph. Looks like a little rat snuck in."
Madam Sanada snorted.
"It's fine. Tell everyone to hide. This will be over soon."
...
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