"As long as you name the person behind this, I can let you walk away unharmed."
"Otherwise, your fate will be the same as your Pokémon's: frozen in blocks of ice and sunk into the bottomless depths of a dark lake."
Feng Che's voice, muffled by the smiley mask, was low and menacing. The chilling tone sounded as if it had been soaked in an ice cellar, making the listeners tremble uncontrollably.
"Sir, we... we're just poachers! No one sent us!" Venom, the leader, stammered, trying to justify his presence. "We heard there were rare Pokémon here and wanted to try our luck. We really—"
Snap.
Before he could finish, Venom was instantly flash-frozen into a pillar of ice. The sight sent his subordinates into a state of hysterical shivering.
"I don't like liars. This is the fate of those who talk back. I assume you don't want to join him? You have one minute. Think carefully before you speak," Feng Che sneered.
The laughter, carrying a terrifying and oppressive aura, drifted through the dark mist. In the eyes of the intruders, Feng Che looked like a demon crawling out of hell.
"I'll talk! I'll tell you everything!" One by one, the cloaked men fell to their knees and confessed.
Once he had the name, Feng Che released the psychic binding. The "poachers" scrambled away, crawling and stumbling into the distance.
"Sky Daycare... so, they've been eyeing me for this long."
"Perhaps because I haven't been open for business, they grew impatient and wanted to test my depth. Fine. Once the match with Red is settled, I'll pay Sky Daycare a visit. I'll rip out their 'protective umbrella' by the roots. Daring to spy on my daycare... you're asking for death!"
Sky Daycare
A young woman with a graceful figure sat on a sofa, elegantly sipping red wine. This was Chiyoda Yuki, the daughter of the original owner, Chiyoda Kawa. She had already replaced her father as the actual controller of Sky Daycare.
Sitting opposite her was a young man with a buzz cut who looked seventy to eighty percent like Giovanni. He was staring obsessively at Yuki.
"Sakaki Tsu, is your plan really foolproof?" Yuki asked, frowning. "The owner of Celadon Daycare is currently taking the Viridian Gym exam. If he becomes the Gym Leader, will he come looking for trouble? Sky Daycare is a big business; we don't want to provoke a powerful enemy."
"Relax. That man won't become the Viridian Gym Leader," the buzz-cut youth, Sakaki Tsu, said dismissively as he swirled his wine.
Sakaki Tsu was Giovanni's nephew. In Team Rocket, he was touted as the successor, the "Second-Generation Leader."
"I've already secretly sent a file to Elite Four Agatha," Tsu grinned. "Agatha hates corruption and evil; she'll toss him into the League's prison before the finals are over. It's impossible for him to take the Gym."
He took a sip of wine, a cruel smile appearing on his face. "Furthermore, I manipulated the Secret Affairs department to issue him a fake mission. If he goes, he falls into a trap. If he doesn't go, we punish him for 'insubordination' according to Team Rocket rules. The heir to Team Rocket can only be me."
Tsu had no idea that Ryan had already tracked every one of his moves.
Team Rocket HQ
Giovanni sat in his office, staring at the evidence Ryan had compiled.
"Ryan, do you think the human heart is truly never satisfied?" Giovanni sighed heavily. "Tsu lost his parents young, and I raised him. Yet, he has no gratitude—only a heart as small as a pinhole. I tolerated his petty revenge against others over the years, but to sabotage a high-achieving Executive who has done so much for the organization? That, I cannot tolerate."
Giovanni's eyes grew cold. "Tsu's vision is too narrow. He's just like his father. Issue the order: arrest Sakaki Tsu and his affiliated forces. Punish them strictly according to our rules. Do not show mercy because he is my nephew. As for Sky Daycare... erase it from existence."
"Understood, Leader," Ryan replied, a smirk playing on his lips. He had long been disgusted by Tsu's backstabbing nature.
Celadon Daycare
Feng Che stayed by Zeraora's side all night. By dawn, she had successfully laid an egg.
"Congratulations, Zeraora. The egg is healthy. Rest up and focus on hatching these two."
One egg was the one Feng Che had synthesized in the lab, and the other was Zeraora's natural offspring.
"I need to take Venusaur with me for the finals," Feng Che said, patting the Pokémon's head. For the match against Red, he planned to use his "Heavenly Team": Venusaur, Sirfetch'd, Greninja, Incineroar, Gyarados, and Flygon.
He knew Red's team—Poliwrath, Venusaur, Pikachu, Aerodactyl, Gyarados, and Snorlax—and possibly the special Eevee. To win, he couldn't hold back. However, he decided to bench Corviknight; the Heart of Steel inside it was too much of a risk around Hagen.
"Feng Che, there's something I've been meaning to tell you," Mewtwo's voice broke the silence. "The Ditto by your side... it feels 'different.' It gives me a very familiar feeling."
"Familiar? Aren't all Ditto the same?"
"No," Mewtwo said seriously. "I can sense a massive psychic origin within it. It feels... blood-related to me."
"Well, you're both derived from Mew's cells. That makes sense," Feng Che shrugged.
"No. Most Dittos are failed evolutionary clones; their genes have diverged into a different species. But do you remember the lab accident Dr. Fuji never speaks of? The one where several powerful Pokémon corpses and a fully developed embryo vanished?"
Mewtwo's eyes glowed. "Before me, there was another embryo that matured. It disappeared one day without a trace. If that embryo hadn't gone missing, I might never have been created. I suspect your Ditto is that missing embryo."
"That's impossible," Feng Che laughed. "My Ditto has high-end transformation abilities, but it doesn't have a 'massive psychic origin.' It's never been to a legendary resource site. It's just a talented Ditto, don't overthink it."
Feng Che's smile faded, however, when Mewtwo suddenly materialized outside its Poké Ball, its eyes fixed on the purple blob.
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