Chapter 260: Otherworld, Elder
"So, there are a total of four new trainers from Pallet Town this time, all ten years old?"
A few minutes later, Giovanni returned to his private office. He sat in his chair, stroking his Persian with one hand while holding a thick file in the other.
Standing beside him was a secretary-like woman with glasses and neat, short purple hair. This was Giovanni's personal secretary, Matori.
"Yes, Giovanni!"
Team Rocket's minions were spread throughout the Kanto Region. Their intelligence network alone was an extremely powerful search engine.
"The first is named Gary. He's Professor Oak's grandson, and his starter Pokémon is a Squirtle."
Giovanni's cold eyes scanned the file with quantum reading, taking in ten lines at a glance. He quickly finished reviewing the dossier. Everything was in there, from the starter Pokémon he received at the start of his journey to his Gym challenges, and even the intelligence about him being swindled into buying a cartload of perfume in Celadon City.
But no matter how he looked at it, he was just a gullible rich kid with decent aptitude. This image completely overlapped with the Gary he had first encountered.
"Wait."
Giovanni suddenly noticed a few peculiar records.
For example, during his battle at the Fuchsia Gym, he had displayed an overwhelming level of power.
Another example: in Saffron City, he had entered the Silph Co. Building.
Calculating the time, it was exactly when Lambda had reported to him about the Rainbow Group's retreat.
"Boss, we couldn't hold them off! The enemy was too strong. It was Champion Lance, leading three other members of the Elite Four, who launched a surprise attack on the Silph Co. Building overnight! Those bastards from the Pokémon League!"
He remembered that was what Lambda had reported to him at the time.
Giovanni: "..."
He seemed to have guessed something. His face darkened, and he suppressed his anger as he continued to read the remaining files. But what he found strange was that the name "Green" yielded no results; there wasn't a single shred of information on him.
This was very strange. A situation like this should have been impossible.
"Hmph."
Next, Giovanni looked at the files of the other three new trainers who had set out on their journeys on the same day.
The second was named Little Black. On the first day, he received a Charmander. From the second day onward, there was no more information on him. His file had been stamped with a red seal that read, "Already Croaked."
"Croaked on the second day? How pathetic."
Giovanni sneered. This world wasn't so simple. It was indeed easy for new trainers to die a miserable death midway through their journey, but to croak on the second day was almost laughable.
The third was a girl named Blue. Her family had been poor farmers for three generations. On the day she set out, she received a Bulbasaur. She seemed to wander around carefree, but her recorded path was very strange.
The records were often fragmented. The girl would frequently vanish, only for new records of her to mysteriously appear in another city.
Similarly, she was also present on the day the Silph Co. Building was raided by the Elite Four.
Giovanni: "..."
The last one was named Ash. His mother's name was Delia, but his father's information was listed as unknown.
His starter Pokémon was a common electric mouse, and he was also challenging Gyms. Likewise, he too had displayed overwhelming strength at the Fuchsia Gym.
There was a recorded image of him chatting and laughing with a Team Rocket core executive, Archer.
He was also at the scene of the Silph Co. Building raid.
Giovanni even saw a video. The video's source wasn't their Team Rocket internal network but rather data from the public internet, apparently uploaded by someone.
The video was very clear. It showed a beach and the ocean, likely on a tropical island.
As the camera panned down, a boy with vibrant, dark green hair and a red and white cap could be seen standing in the shallows. The water reached his chin, and his expression was grim.
On the other side was a giant, ice-blue bird. Her crystalline feathers were beautiful but disheveled. The seawater around her waist was frozen into ice flowers.
Then, with furious shouts, the boy and the bird rushed at each other. The giant bird was seen delivering an upward kick, sending the boy's chin flying with its grayish-brown talons.
But the boy's body was also ridiculously tough. After recovering, he retaliated by shoving the giant, ice-blue bird's head into the seawater, forcing her to swallow a mouthful.
"Thwack, thwack, thwack..."
The close-quarters battle between the boy and the bird raged on until sunset, when the twilight glow scattered across the surface of the sea.
Below the video were several tags and titles.
"Extreme Rage: You Are Far Stronger Than You Imagine!"
"You're kidding, right? There are still people who can't beat a Legendary Pokémon these days?"
"Precious Video of Early Humans Taming a Wild Articuno"
Uploader: Congolese Black Uncle
Giovanni: "..."
A stampede of ten thousand Arceus galloped through his mind, making him want to curse out loud.
Giovanni quickly forced himself to ignore the video and return to the main point. But one thing was certain: this boy named Ash was also far from ordinary.
His brow furrowed deeply. The more he thought about the Silph Co. incident, the less it seemed like the late-night surprise attack by Champion Lance and the Elite Four that his subordinates had reported.
Team Rocket and the Pokémon League weren't even in conflict at the moment; there was no reason to launch a frontal assault.
"Could it be that they were steamrolled by these new trainers, and then they just turned around and pinned the blame on Champion Lance...?"
Thinking about how those core executives usually feigned compliance while acting otherwise, this scenario seemed entirely possible.
Although Lambda and his group's strength was decent, if these new trainers used the same kind of power as Green, they would've been wiped out for nothing.
"Hmph."
But that wasn't the key. The key was...
Where did this power, or rather, this complete personality shift, come from?
And who was this Green?
What kind of secrets were these three new trainers hiding?!
"Pallet Town... new trainers..."
Giovanni began to brainstorm, his expression constantly shifting as he merged various speculations and hypotheses, then continuously discarded irrelevant answers. He kept stroking his Persian's fur, and his eyes gradually brightened.
That's right, none of this was a coincidence!
"Meeeowr!!"
As if he had found an answer, Giovanni suddenly grabbed the Persian, causing it to hiss in pain with its fur standing on end.
"Matori, use these three as a template and begin scanning all youths around the age of ten in the Kanto Region. I want it precise, down to the individual!"
This is no coincidence. There must be some kind of special connection!
"No, don't limit the scope to the Kanto Region. Kanto already has these three. Focus on the Johto Region!"
Team Rocket's intelligence network wasn't limited to the Kanto Region; the Johto Region was also within Team Rocket's grasp.
As for other regions, the difficulty was much greater. They all had their own interest groups, and it is hard for a mighty dragon to suppress the local snakes.
He was now convinced that there was something strange about these three trainers from Pallet Town!
"Yes, it will only take five minutes. No, three minutes will be sufficient!"
Matori replied dutifully. It was the first time she had seen Giovanni with such an expression, and she didn't dare to be the least bit careless. She turned around and began working furiously on the computer.
Meanwhile, sitting in his chair, Giovanni's expression shifted again. His brow, instead of unknotting, furrowed even more deeply. If his guess was correct, then it was truly terrifying.
Giovanni took a deep breath, his tone a mix of awe and doubt.
"An Otherworldly Elder...?"
(end of chapter)