Chapter 292: No Loose Ends
After a moment, Xiu opened his eyes and mentally sorted through the information he had just forcibly extracted.
The bald man was indeed a Team Rocket spy, one of many likely embedded in towns and villages across Kanto, willing to do anything for money.
Most of the drug lures placed around Pallet Town had been his handiwork.
The crew-cut man and the fat youth were low-level Team Rocket grunts, belonging to a small, insignificant team.
Their purpose here was to deliver more of the drug along their designated route and to assist the bald middle-aged man in causing chaos within Pallet Town when the infected Pokémon inevitably attacked.
To maintain secrecy, the two grunts had only met up with the local spy after arriving in Pallet Town.
As for other, more significant Team Rocket plans or operations, they had no idea. They simply followed instructions from their superiors.
Xiu raised his hand. A section of the house's floorboards lifted, revealing a small, hidden pit underneath, containing various items.
Among some miscellaneous supplies was a bag packaged to look like standard Pokéblocks yet Xiu knew it was a disguise for the psychoactive drug.
For a moment, he smiled and quipped telepathically to Abra, "Why don't the people from Team Rocket just mix the drugs directly with food and sell them? Wouldn't that be more likely to cause widespread, 'accidental' outbreaks?"
Of course, Xiu was just being cynical. If that were true, it would be impossible for such a large, coordinated beast tide to form, as it would be difficult to control the timing of the outbreak, and there simply weren't enough Pokémon within city limits to create such a massive wave.
It would be even more terrible if Pokémon infected in such a manner were unknowingly sent to a Pokémon Center.
After securing the ten-kilogram package of the drug, Xiu searched the rest of the small house. He found that the bald old man was quite well-off, at least by local standards.
It seemed he had received a substantial amount of money from Team Rocket for his services. He was a cash person; all his ill-gotten gains were in a safe hidden in the house.
For Xiu, however, such a lock was a trivial matter, easily bypassed with a wave of his hand and a touch of psychic manipulation.
After looting the place – taking anything of value from both the people and the house – and meticulously erasing all traces of his presence, Xiu turned his attention back to the three unconscious men.
They were not dead, just deeply unconscious from the psychic trauma.
"Go and get his dad to drive their car over here," Xiu instructed Abra telepathically, referring to the fat youth. "Then take these men away."
He couldn't deal with them here in Pallet Town; it would be too troublesome and risk exposure.
After Abra left for a while, the sound of an approaching engine was heard. Xiu felt the telepathic connection confirm Abra's success.
He psychically levitated the three men and guided them out of the house. The darkness of the night provided ample cover, otherwise, it would have been difficult for him to move three unconscious bodies so openly.
The vehicle drove away from Pallet Town, heading towards the deep darkness in the distance…
— — —
It was late at night, and most sensible creatures were asleep.
However, strange noises could often be heard deep in the forest – the rustlings and calls of nocturnal Pokémon.
At the same time, some distinctly human, albeit muffled, sounds reached the ears of the unconscious fat youth, gradually waking him.
"Am I dead…?" he thought groggily.
The fat youth tried to sit up but found that his hands and feet were tightly bound.
Following the strange digging sound, he saw a small night light, emitting a dim glow, hanging on a tree branch in the oppressive darkness. Below it, a figure was energetically waving a shovel, digging a hole.
"Ah!" The fat youth subconsciously let out a cry of surprise, which immediately attracted the attention of the figure. The digging stopped, and the figure turned to look towards him.
"Oh, you're awake."
This frightened the fat youth so much that he forgot to shout again, instead squirming his bound body frantically, trying to escape.
As he thrashed, he bumped into the inert bodies of several other people lying beside him, which almost scared him to death.
He fell back to the ground, his head tilted at an awkward angle, unconscious again.
Xiu couldn't help but smile faintly when he saw this pathetic display and continued digging the pit.
Just now, he had taken a quick, cursory look into the memory of the fat youth's father and found that this father and son were indeed a bizarre pair.
How should he put it? It was probably because the father's ancestors were all ordinary people.
When he was young, he had yearned to be a Trainer, but reality and lack of opportunity had restricted him, so he could only remain an ordinary person.
When he was out in society, he was often bullied or looked down upon by Trainers.
Yet, this did not prevent him from yearning for acceptance into that class, a twisted sort of admiration.
Later, he made some money through a small business. By then, however, he was already middle-aged and lacked the courage to give up his established life to pursue his childhood dream of becoming a Trainer.
So, he transferred all his hopes of leaping to a higher social class onto his son.
He spent a lot of money to send his son to the best Pokémon school in Viridian City and then spent even more to buy him a Machoke.
He usually agreed to everything his son did, gave him whatever he wanted, and kept spending money lavishly, all in the desperate hope that his son would become a successful Trainer.
Everything should have proceeded according to a normal course, and the fat youth, with such advantages, should have lived up to everyone's expectations and become an excellent Trainer.
But his family dynamic followed the "overly kind father and utterly spoiled, ungrateful son" route.
According to the fat youth's own memories, he had poor grades to begin with. He had essentially bought his way into the prestigious school, so no one there truly respected him, and many even looked down on him.
What was even funnier, or perhaps sadder, was that the fat youth was pathetically weak in Pokémon battles; he couldn't beat anyone and was consistently ranked the worst in his class.
He was the little emperor at home, but at school, he was the class punching bag, and no one gave him any face. Living in two such extremely different environments, his personality gradually became distorted, and eventually, he became the arrogant, insecure bully Xiu had encountered.
Team Rocket loved to target individuals like him. They could easily pull him into their organization with just a few empty promises and a bit of flattery.
Bullying ordinary people, in turn, only fueled his temper and arrogance, which led to his previous insolence towards Xiu.
But after today, this person would no longer exist.
Xiu looked at the large pit he had dug, then turned his head to look at the men lying on the ground. He paused for a moment, stuck the shovel into the earth, and turned to walk towards them.
Xiu kicked the fat youth in the back and shouted, "Stop pretending to be dead."
"Woo woo woo…" When the fat youth heard this, he tensed up and tried desperately to crawl away, but Xiu had already grabbed him by his clothes and was dragging him towards the edge of the pit.
"Stop your noise. This is a remote place. There aren't even many wild Pokémon around here, let alone humans."
"Let me go! I know nothing!" the youth blubbered.
"You're really damn heavy," Xiu grunted, not having the patience for this. He dragged him to the edge and unceremoniously kicked him in.
The fat youth tumbled into the deep pit. His hands and feet were still tied, so he couldn't adjust his posture. He landed painfully at the bottom. But he couldn't care less about the pain at the moment and could only wail and cry. "Wuwuwu… Dad… come and save me!"
Just a moment later, another person was pushed into the pit. Xiu looked down and said with a chilling smile, "Stop your crying. Isn't your father here with you now?"
The fat youth was hit hard by the falling body. When he saw the man clearly in the faint, eerie light of the distant night-light, he found that it was indeed his father. His wails became even more miserable.
Xiu stood at the edge of the pit, observing them with great interest, and said with a smile, "Don't be so anxious to thank me. Everyone knows that I am a kind person. How could I possibly break up your loving family? Fortunately, you don't have a mother, otherwise, it would be really troublesome to make an extra trip to fetch her."
Xiu's figure disappeared from the edge of the pit. After a moment, several more bodies tumbled in.