Hoopa's abilities caused a trendous stir within the League.
The power to open portals between two places thousands of miles apart and enable almost unlimited transportation—this ability is truly extraordinary.
When Goodshow heard about it, he couldn't help but gasp in astonishnt.
To put it bluntly, compared to Legendary Pokémon with overwhelming combat capabilities, the League now needs this kind of Pokémon even more.
Previously, when hearing about the Masked Man's attack on Lily of the Valley Island, Goodshow's main concern wasn't whether the Sinnoh League could withstand the assault but whether the general populace would be affected.
Fortunately, although there were casualties, the damage was at least contained within a controllable scope.
After learning about Hoopa's abilities, Goodshow decided that no matter the cost, just as they once recruited Sheena into the League, they had to bring Hoopa into their fold.
Her abilities are simply too important for the League.
For instance, if Hoopa had been present during the Indigo Plateau battle, the Shadow organization would never have been so arrogant.
At that ti, the League was passive not only because the Shadow organization was strong and had controlled nurous Legendary Pokémon with dark powers but also because reinforcents from other Leagues took far too long to arrive.
Even the nearest regions, Hoenn and Sinnoh, required Steven and Cynthia to fly over for more than two hours.
As for Galar and Paldea, which were farther away, they didn't even arrive until the battle was already over.
If Hoopa had been there, all the Elite Four and Champions from other regions could have been transported over in one go.
In that case, Shadow would have been nothing to worry about.
However, the situation was different from when the Sinnoh League recruited Sheena. According to Diantha's report, Hoopa's trainer had no intention of joining the League.
As a result, Goodshow had to personally board a private jet to Kalos to act as a negotiator.
["With the help of the Pokémon League, over 800,000 residents of Lily of the Valley Island have temporarily settled in Kalos' Dahara City. According to frontline reporters, it was a Legendary Pokémon called 'Hoopa' that transported this massive population. The island's restoration efforts have now been taken over by the Cyrus Corporation. Mr. Cyrus, a rising star entrepreneur from Sinnoh, has seen his public support skyrocket in the region due to this incident. Many Sinnoh residents, when interviewed, expressed hopes that Mr. Cyrus could succeed as the Sinnoh League's chairman..."
Sitting at an outdoor table in a café in Dahara City, Marnie didn't pay much attention to the words of the host on the large screen in the square. Instead, she occasionally glanced at her watch.
The person she had agreed to et yesterday had promised to et her here at this ti.
"A cute little miss like you—mind if I get to know you?"
A slightly frivolous teasing voice ca from behind her.
Marnie turned her head.
What ca into her view was a young man wearing a hoodie, with the hood covering the upper half of his face. He was smiling at her.
"Jo—"
Before the usually stoic Marnie could blurt out the word in her excitent, Stephen reacted quickly, reaching out to cover her small mouth with one hand while raising a finger to his lips with the other, making a "shh" gesture.
Marnie clutched her currently still flat chest, but her heart inside was already pounding uncontrollably.
Stephen handed Marnie a light pink phone. "Do you need for sothing, cute little miss?"
Marnie took several deep breaths, trying hard to force a smile.
But despite having practiced many tis, she still couldn't do it well.
In the end, she hooked her index fingers at the corners of her mouth, manually pulling out a smile. "H-Hello, my na is Marnie... I... I hope to join Team Rocket."
Well, that was unexpected. But it certainly made her even more adorable.
When Stephen heard Marnie's request, he was montarily stunned.
Suddenly, he understood why Piers had been asking him questions about Team Rocket's benefits and whether the mbers got along well with each other.
"The current situation within Team Rocket is unstable. Now isn't a good ti to join."
Stephen sat across from Marnie and said.
He didn't ask Marnie why she wanted to join Team Rocket. The admiration in her eyes already explained everything.
He was, of course, referring to the issue of Giovanni's heir being exposed.
Although Stephen thought that little troublemaker Carr wouldn't cause any significant problems, for a six-year-old girl like Marnie, even a slight disturbance would feel like a major storm.
"I'm not afraid!" Marnie said stubbornly.
"But if I brought you in and couldn't protect you, I'd feel very guilty."
Stephen smiled and said in a tone used to coax children: "How about this? Go train in Alola first. Once you're strong enough to protect yourself, I'll bring you into Team Rocket."
"Alola? Isn't that your brother's territory? I don't like him," Marnie pouted.
Stephen: ...
"Can I ask why?"
Stephen was curious.
He suddenly rembered that he'd t Marnie before at a birthday celebration in Wyndon City in Galar.
Even back then, her attitude toward him wasn't great.
It was odd. Liking Joker shouldn't an disliking Stephen, right?
And as far as his public identity was concerned, he thought he'd maintained a good image.
"You went through so much, and as your family, he didn't stand by your side. Instead, he continued being the League's lapdog!" Marnie said angrily.
For soone with a stoic personality like hers, the amount of talking she'd done in the past five minutes probably surpassed her usual three-day quota.
Especially with her current righteous indignation—her brother Piers likely hadn't seen this side of her.
It just goes to show that even the warst little sister can sotis let cold air in.
Stephen was speechless again. He had no idea what kind of scenario this little girl had imagined in her head.
"Don't worry about it. Let's focus on what we can do ourselves. How about this? If you can capture this Pokémon, I'll bring you into Team Rocket."
Stephen showed Marnie a picture of a Guzzlord on his phone.
Since Karen didn't choose to capture Guzzlord due to its incompatible battle style, Stephen always felt it was a pity.
Seeing the Morpeko sitting on Marnie's lap reminded Stephen that this girl also used Dark-type Pokémon.
So he decided to use this as her entrance exam.
"Then... then you have to visit often."
Feeling the concern from her idol, Marnie finally agreed, though she made a small request in return.
"Mm, no problem."
Stephen agreed without hesitation.
It was just a matter of changing clothes, after all.
"Wow! That's Chairman Goodshow!"
"And Chairman Lysandre is here too!"
"Elite Four Malva and Lorelei are also here! Both of them look so sexy!"
"What do you have to eat to grow like that?!"
Just as Stephen and Marnie finished their conversation, a commotion could be heard from the street not far away.
More and more people began gathering in that direction.
Stephen and Marnie exchanged a glance and decided to go check it out.
Because of the growing crowd, Stephen took Marnie's small hand to ensure she wouldn't get swept away.
Marnie pressed her lips tightly together.
'His hand is warr than my brother's.'
Several League police officers were maintaining order. Goodshow, as the Chairman of the Pokémon League, waved at the onlooking crowd before getting into the car.
Following him was Lysandre, who had only recently assud the position of Chairman of the Kalos League.
But the true center of attention was still the two female Elite Four mbers.
Both Malva and Lorelei, with their striking figures, drew every pair of eyes in the crowd like magnets.
Stephen could even hear the sound of people swallowing their saliva.
Finally, as the group boarded a luxurious stretch limousine and drove away, many people remained staring dumbfoundedly in the direction the car had gone.
"I noticed sothing about those two female Elite Four mbers," soone in the crowd said. "Their personalities overlap. Both have that seductive, teasing vibe, and their figures are... explosive. Oh, and they both wear glasses."
"Yosh! Tonight, I'll be using their pictures as my side dish!" another man declared.
"n are so disgusting..." a few female bystanders muttered in disdain.
The man who made the crude comnt retorted, "What? So it's fine for you to drool over posters of Steven Stone and Wallace, but we can't?"
The won beca indignant at this.
"That's not the sa at all!"
"I prefer Joker's posters or Dr. Stephen, anyway."
"Actually, Professor Oak wouldn't be bad either..."
Stephen: ...
Speechless, Stephen quickly pulled Marnie away to avoid giving her any bad influences.
"They're heading toward the Arche Valley," Marnie pointed in the direction of the departing cars.
"Mm."
Stephen nodded.
It wasn't hard to guess why Goodshow had co to Kalos. Lysandre, on the other hand, likely wouldn't take this sitting down.
"Let's go back to Alola," Stephen said, turning to Marnie.
"Aren't we going to check it out?" Marnie blinked her large eyes.
She had seen Hoopa's abilities before and knew how absurdly powerful they were. Even though Marnie didn't yet know that Hoopa's golden rings could summon Legendary Pokémon, its ability to teleport over vast distances made it a treasure any major power would covet.
The phrase "Whoever possesses Hoopa rules the world" wouldn't be an exaggeration.
"It's fine," Stephen said with a shake of his head.
He didn't desire Hoopa as much, partly because of a lazy, gaming-addicted cat back ho. Every ti he needed anything from that cat, he had to offer bribes and keep it secret from Sonia, which was troubleso enough already.
More importantly, Stephen thought ray was a good girl and didn't want to take away sothing she loved.
Yes, Stephen prided himself as a pure-hearted warrior of love—never one to ddle in other people's relationships!
...
Less than an hour later, near the Arche Valley, just a dozen kiloters from Dahara City...
The Arche Valley was once a rarely visited place due to its harsh environnt. Hardly anyone ca here throughout the year.
But ever since the Lily of the Valley Island incident, this place has turned into a tourist attraction.
No, to be precise, it wasn't the Arche Valley itself that attracted people—it was the Legendary Pokémon capable of teleporting tens of thousands of people at once.
At first, visitors just wanted to take pictures together or pet them a little.
ray was willing to accommodate these requests.
But as more people arrived, ray began to sense sothing was off.
She noticed the way many people looked at Hoopa—with greed that couldn't be hidden.
Just yesterday, soone from the crowd had even thrown a Poké Ball at Hoopa.
Fortunately, Hoopa was at full strength and broke free the second it was captured.
Even so, the incident caused an uproar.
Although the capture failed, many people saw that Hoopa had been temporarily contained in the ball.
This revealed that ray hadn't caught Hoopa and wasn't its official trainer.
If soone got lucky and threw a ball at Hoopa, even with a one-in-ten-thousand chance of success, wouldn't they hit the jackpot?
Seeing the situation spiral out of control, Baraz, the village chief, imdiately ordered the valley to be sealed off, expelling all non-residents.
But even so, crowds of tourists, reporters, and opportunists still gathered at the entrance of the canyon every day.
"If Hoopa could pass through its rings, it would be able to help ray escape."
Hoopa pointed its two little fingers at each other, looking guilty.
"What are you saying? This isn't your fault."
ray smiled and patted the back of Hoopa's head.
But her smile was forced, and her expression was extrely fatigued.
It was clear that her ntal state was currently very poor.
"Baraz, soone is here."
At this mont, a villager ca to report to Baraz.
Baraz impatiently replied, "Didn't I say no one is allowed in?!"
"It's President Goodshow, Chairman Lysandre, and Elite Four mbers Lorelei and Malva..."
The villager responded.
"On my way!"
Baraz quickly headed out the door.
ray rolled her eyes dramatically.
Don't think she didn't notice.
When her brother heard the nas "Goodshow" and "Lysandre," his gaze was reverent, but when he heard the last na, it turned into joy.
ray didn't want to see that woman, but she hadn't expected even Goodshow, the greatest figure in the Pokémon League, to co.
After hesitating for a mont, ray got up and stepped outside.
"Hello, child. I'm Goodshow."
Short in stature and with a kind face reminiscent of Santa Claus, Goodshow easily earned people's goodwill.
"Hello," ray replied, a bit nervous.
"Haha, no need to be nervous. Just treat like an ordinary old man. By the way, I wanted to ask, what exactly happened that day? Could you tell about it?"
Goodshow didn't imdiately bring up Hoopa but instead started with another topic, chatting casually with the siblings Baraz and ray.
He already knew the full story from the reports of Cynthia, Steven, Bertha, and Lucian.
The reason he asked ray to recount it was simply to start a conversation and build rapport through small talk.
"Team Rocket knew about Hoopa... But what surprised even more was that they didn't take Hoopa away."
Goodshow sighed in relief.
"Hoopa can't pass through its portals. If they wanted to forcibly take Hoopa, they'd have to capture it. But with Sinnoh's Elite Bertha and Lucian present at the ti, Team Rocket probably couldn't act easily."
ray had beco much more talkative compared to when she first ca out.
It had to be said, Goodshow's ability to stay in the League President position for so many years was not without reason.
Setting everything else aside, his affability was unmatched.
Even Lance, who was notoriously proud, had to show him respect.
"There's another reason—they were in a hurry to reinforce Joker," Lorelei interjected.
"At the ti, a very short mber of Team Rocket insisted on capturing Hoopa, but the other two disagreed, so he gave up," ray added, recalling another detail.
"Carr, right? That guy's insane," Lorelei scoffed.
None of Team Rocket's Three Beasts were easy to deal with.
There was Sird, with her Darkrai and champion-level strength.
There was Orm, towering and even more muscular than Bruno, but whose battle style relied on sneak attacks and underhanded tactics.
And then there was the explosives maniac, Carr, who carried at least ten Forretress and started every fight with Explosion.
"Since Team Rocket already knows about Hoopa, keeping it in the Arche Valley is no longer safe. After all, no one knows when Team Rocket might return," Lysandre stepped forward and said, "Why not let our Kalos League take over?"
Goodshow frowned slightly.
What are you butting in for, upstart?!
Now is not the ti to say that!
Goodshow sneaked a glance at ray.
Sure enough, the girl's face instantly darkened.
But in truth, Lysandre's urgency was understandable.
Currently, the Cocoon of Destruction was in Dr. Stephen's possession. If Team Flare wanted to get their hands on it, they'd need Hoopa's abilities.
If Hoopa ended up in Team Rocket's hands, their plans would be ruined.
"Chairman Lysandre, I've already discussed this with Elite Four Malva. I don't think it's suitable for Hoopa to go with you, and I've explained my reasons clearly, haven't I?"
ray responded expressionlessly.
Her rejection of Lysandre had both personal and public reasons.
On a personal level, she could see that Malva didn't like her brother but also didn't reject his advances. This left ray both puzzled and suspicious.
What was an Elite Four mber, of all people, gaining from stringing along her brother, a re village chief?
On a public level, ray truly believed that the Kalos League was incapable of protecting Hoopa.
The Kalos League's overall strength was widely regarded as the weakest on the continent.
Their current champion could only reach champion-level strength through ga Evolution.
With your level of strength, how could you stop Team Rocket if they ca to take Hoopa?
Lysandre frowned slightly.
At this mont, he couldn't very well say in front of the League President, "Actually, Malva's true strength is champion-level, and I'm also at that level, so you can trust us to protect Hoopa."
If he dared to say that, Goodshow would imdiately turn his attention to him and ask, "Why are you hiding your true strength?"
If that happened, Team Flare wouldn't even get the chance to act before the League ca to take them down.
"If there were soone capable of protecting Hoopa, ray-chan, would you be willing to entrust Hoopa to them?" Lorelei suddenly asked.
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