After successfully catching the Spinda, Sieg felt a quiet flicker of anticipation as he shrank the Poké Ball down to pocket size and clipped it to the back of his Pokédex.
Beep beep beep!
"Spinda, the Spot Panda Pokémon. It is said that no two Spinda in the world share the same spot pattern. Its unsteady, wobbling gait makes it look like it's dancing."
"Level: 17. Gender: Male. Type: Normal. Ability: Contrary. Height: 3'07". Weight: 11.0 lbs. Development: Average. Potential: Average."
"Moves known: Tackle, Copycat, Feint Attack, Psybeam, Hypnosis, Dizzy Punch, Sucker Punch, Teeter Dance."
"Egg move: Baton Pass."
The corner of Sieg's mouth curled up ever so slightly. He hadn't expected this at all. A Spinda with a hidden ability.
Contrary.
That ability.
Any stat change gets completely flipped. Boosts become drops, drops become boosts. It was as simple as it was devastating in the right hands.
The most famous example was Serperior. Pair Leaf Storm with Contrary, and every single attack would actually raise Special Attack by a massive margin instead of tanking it. The combo had a reputation for a reason.
The problem was that Spinda didn't have any moves that naturally lowered its own stats to trigger it in the first place.
"Hmm... though I'm pretty sure Spinda can pick up Skill Swap through a TM."
If Spinda used Skill Swap to pass Contrary off to a teammate, that could actually build into a pretty solid system. On top of that, the egg move Baton Pass had decent expansion potential too. But the stats were just too weak overall, and it wasn't a Dark type either. Sieg had no real use for it on his team.
He'd sell it at the black market once he got to Aster City.
Sieg gave Zorua a quick pat on the head, tossed out a few encouraging words, then glanced up at the sky. It was getting dark faster than he'd like. He picked up his pace.
He swapped out his dusty travel clothes for something cleaner, pulled a cap down low over his face, and slipped into Aster City, keeping his head down and his profile as small as possible.
Something felt off the moment he crossed into the city.
There was a definite tension hanging in the air. It wasn't just the pedestrians moving through the streets with hurried, distracted faces. Even out on the outskirts, before he'd fully entered the city proper, the guard posts had been noticeably more staffed than usual. More patrols. More eyes are sweeping the road.
Everything had the quiet feeling of a city bracing for something it couldn't quite name yet.
He ducked into the Pokémon Center. The familiar lobby greeted him, but the usual bustle was completely gone. The place was nearly deserted, carrying the hollow kind of quiet that only settles in somewhere that's normally lively.
Better head to the Team Rocket base and report in. Get it done.
Sieg grabbed a quick dinner at the Center's cafeteria, ate fast, and slipped away toward the black market.
He knew the route by heart at this point. It didn't take long. The moment he stepped inside, the atmosphere hit him all at once. Thick, tense, the kind of pressure that builds in a room when everyone present is quietly running their own calculations.
Even the usual chaos of the vendor stalls had gone quiet. Nobody was calling out their wares. Instead, people were offloading goods, trying to convert whatever they had into fast-acting power items and materials that could shore up their strength quickly, no questions asked.
The people who operated in grey areas like this weren't fools. They could read a room.
Out in the city above, it wasn't as obvious. Down here in the black market, everyone felt it.
League trainers had been turning up more and more frequently, and there were plenty of unfamiliar faces among them. That alone was enough to set people on edge and keep mouths shut.
Nobody was stopping to talk. Everyone moved with purpose, eyes forward, not lingering.
Sieg passed through a dim, unremarkable general store and slipped through into the Team Rocket base concealed behind it. Even tucked away as it was, the base was well hidden.
Strange. Even the guards inside the base have been doubled.
He felt it immediately. Multiple sets of eyes, some obvious and some not, swept over him from different angles as he moved through the corridors.
The scrutiny only pulled back when he produced the squad commander's badge that marked his rank. One look at it, and the watchful gazes faded.
Sieg walked at an easy pace toward the office building where Archer was stationed, passing more and more Team Rocket members the closer he got. He didn't spare any of them a second glance. He'd long since reached the point where environments like this didn't rattle him in the slightest.
When he found Archer, the man looked exactly as he always did. Crisp white fitted suit, every inch the composed aristocrat.
"This is Shadow, reporting in, sir."
Sieg dropped to one knee and called out in a respectful tone.
On the surface, every bit the loyal subordinate. Whether the word "sir" carried any genuine sincerity behind it was a different matter entirely. Only Sieg himself knew the answer to.
"Get up," Archer said, setting down the book he'd been paging through. His tone was even, unhurried.
Sieg presented the intelligence he'd compiled on Nanmu, organized and clearly laid out. It covered a range of sensitive details, including Team Aqua's reported attempts to have Nanmu design the blueprints for Submarine Explorer 1.
Archer flipped through it with a casual hand, seemingly unbothered by most of what he was reading.
The only moment his attention actually sharpened was when he reached the blueprints for the massive submarine itself. He paused there, just briefly, giving it a slightly longer look before moving on.
"I heard you and that girl from Sinnoh managed to shut down Team Aqua's plans." Archer's gaze shifted to Sieg, that familiar weight of pressure settling behind his eyes. "You've been showing up in the papers pretty regularly lately. Starting to make a name for yourself."
"Yes, sir. Team Aqua is a serious organization. If Team Rocket intends to expand in Hoenn, running into them at some point is unavoidable." Sieg kept his voice steady and respectful.
Something felt off about Archer today, though. Hard to place exactly. He seemed somehow... distracted. Like something was sitting quietly at the back of his mind and wouldn't let go.
Was that just Sieg imagining things?
He couldn't be sure. Either way, he kept his composure and played his role.
"Right. You seem to be doing well on the League side of things." Archer folded his hands. "Would you like the organization to step in and give you a push? Help build your profile a little."
The implication was clear enough. Archer was looking at Sieg as a long-term asset planted inside the League.
Team Rocket had never abandoned its infiltration strategy. Not among the political upper ranks, not among the rising young talent. In Kanto, especially, the reach ran deep. Archer himself knew of more than a few cases firsthand.
It was only after the Boss had personally groomed him to break through to the Elite Four level and brought him into the inner circle that Archer had truly grasped how far Team Rocket's influence actually extended. More than half of Kanto's eight cornerstone Gyms were already operating under Team Rocket's control.
When Archer had been reassigned to Hoenn, he'd carried the same ambitions with him. Find the cracks and work his way in. Results had been thin so far.
Until Sieg came along.
And when Sieg's answer came, it visibly settled something in Archer. He couldn't help but look at the younger operative with a touch more genuine respect.
"With respect, sir. I don't need any support from the organization. I can establish my own footing in Hoenn on my own terms."
The last thing Sieg wanted was Team Rocket's fingerprints anywhere near his League identity.
If a Champion-level figure within the League ever decided to run a background check on him, that would be it. Archer's cover story was just barely enough to hold up under scrutiny from an Elite Four member. But if one of the League's real old guard, the ones who operated quietly in the shadows with no fanfare and no public profile, decided to dig into him, they would find the connection to Team Rocket without breaking a sweat. No question about it.