Chapter 94. The Trio's Twist of Fate
The fleeing Team Rocket members all wore looks of terror.
Someone spotted Archer's figure, and they started crowding toward him one by one.
"Executive Archer, there's a mutiny!"
Idiots, don't come over here!
Archer shot those members a vicious glare.
But in that moment, these members—scared out of their wits—obviously wouldn't notice Lance standing behind Archer.
Luckily, an even louder roar drowned out their voices.
"Rumble—"
Up ahead, the bay door split open, and a Dragonite was blasted out, tumbling through the air.
Lance and Archer's eyes hardened at the same time, both locking onto the person on that Dragonite's back.
That man was the Team Rocket Executive in charge of the Game Corner.
Right now, that Executive was in a sorry state, and the instant he saw Archer, he scrambled over like he had just grasped a lifeline.
His Dragonite pivoted to brace the bay door, straining with all its strength.
"Worthless trash!"
Before the man could speak, Archer moved to kick him.
"Clang~"
Lance raised a leg and blocked Archer's kick.
"What, afraid he'll let something slip?"
The Executive looked soulless, muttering to himself.
"Executive Archer, our—boom!"
Just then, the bay door behind him was torn open completely.
The Dragonite bracing the door was knocked flying, throwing up a cloud of dust.
When the dust settled, Dragonite had lost the ability to battle.
In its place, a massive mechanical Dragonite stomped in, drawing everyone's attention.
This mechanical Dragonite was much larger than an ordinary Dragonite, practically a match for the giant Dragonite Natsume had encountered.
"Special Operations unit of Team Rocket on official business.
All bystanders clear out, meow!"
Meowth's voice blared through the mechanical Dragonite's loudspeakers, echoing through the entire underground complex.
At the same time, a man and a woman stood on the mech's shoulder.
"Hmph.
So you're the disgrace put on Giovanni's wanted list.
We're here to cleanse the ranks!" Jessie declared imperiously.
Beside her, James flicked a rose that landed on the Executive, as if serving him a death notice.
"Executive Archer, save me!
These three lunatics barged in claiming they're a special operations unit reporting directly to Giovanni!"
"They're going to get rid of me!"
The Executive finally reacted.
He had no idea what he had done wrong.
These three had to be fakes!
Off to the side, Lance arched a brow and took his hand off Archer's shoulder.
So Giovanni really did send people to purge the ranks?
"Out of my way!" Archer trembled with agitation and gave the Executive a kick.
"Huh?
That looks like Executive Archer, meow."
Meowth's voice boomed.
"What?" James and Jessie turned to look in unison.
"You've done very well!" Archer made no attempt to hide his praise for the trio.
"Hahaha, even Executive Archer recognizes us now, meow!"
"And you—do you have anything to say for yourself, you disgrace who tarnished Team Rocket's name, meow!"
The more Meowth looked, the more he felt the man below looked exactly like the Executive who'd stuck his rear in the air and tempted fate in Saffron City that day.
"Boom!"
A violent thunderclap boomed from behind them.
Natsume had already slipped out through the bay door.
Sure enough, with ample funding, the trio's combat power was unbelievably strong.
He glanced back at the mechanical Dragonite and couldn't help feeling a twinge of awe, shocked that the trio could hand-build something that massive in just a few days.
"Rotom, lights."
Natsume spoke, and bright light sprang up before his eyes.
Outside the bay door lay a vast experimental space, though the wiring everywhere had been wrecked by the commotion the trio caused.
Natsume took in everything inside, unleashing his telekinesis to scour for any possible clues.
Before long, he discovered a shattered giant display.
On the half that remained, he could vaguely make out the shape of a pink Pokémon.
"Mew."
Natsume murmured, moved his gaze off the Mew image, lowered his head to the control console, and started fiddling with it.
There was a lot here, and Natsume quickly found the experiment logs.
After scanning a few pages, he had the gist.
This place was indeed connected to the development of Mewtwo.
From this information, Mewtwo was about to be completed.
At least the body had already been constructed.
What remained was a stable mental state.
Because it possessed Mew's complete Pokémon genome, when Mewtwo's will was born, all sorts of conflicting wills would surge forth, clash, and ultimately fail.
As a last resort, Team Rocket supplemented it with human genes, attempting to make human will the master of Mewtwo's body.
However, Mewtwo seemed to loathe adult will.
So they set their sights on children.
And to make it easier for Mewtwo to accept these children's human wills, Team Rocket would use a hypnosis device so the children believed they were Pokémon.
Conveniently, that also helped integrate the chaotic wills spawned from the Mew genes.
Natsume swiftly downloaded the experimental data.
Then he pulled a keyboard out of his system space, plugged it into the computer, and began to "leave comments."
As he typed the last character, a faint sound came from behind him.
Natsume's figure flickered, and he vanished from where he'd stood.
Behind him, a Meowth walked in holding a USB stick, muttering to himself.
"Room 201—this is the one, meow.
Executive Archer said I just need to download what's in here, meow."
The next morning in the Celadon City Pokémon Center, the group was eating breakfast.
"Hahahaha, that's right, this is Misty!"
Ash sat on the dining table, holding up his Pokédex, showing everyone a video in turn.
On screen, Misty lay in a puddle of water, her eyes as blank as a dead fish, flopping over and over.
"Magikarp—Magikarp—" Misty's dazed voice played in sync, and Ash burst into laughter.
Misty clenched her fists, already fuming red.
"Hahaha, look at her!
She thinks she's a Magikarp—ah!"
Misty used the Instant Grow Technique on Ash!
"I misspoke.
It should be more like Gyarados," Ash said, rubbing the giant lump on his head, pitifully aggrieved.
"What did you say!" Misty roared, spraying Ash's face with spit.
"Quack—"
A duck's call sounded from the side.
"Hm?" Misty turned and saw a yellow duck.
"Psyduck?" Everyone looked over.
"Oh, that seems to be the stray Psyduck Nurse Joy mentioned.
It often grabs a free meal at the Pokémon Center," Brock recalled, explaining.
Psyduck tilted its head at Misty, then stared fixedly at the video on Ash's Pokédex.
"What are you doing?" Misty stared blankly at Psyduck.
It ignored her, its vacant gaze drifting back and forth between Misty and the "Magikarp" in the Pokédex video.
"Quack—tap!"
Psyduck nudged one of the Poké Balls at Misty's waist with its beak.
With a whoosh of red light, it was captured.
Misty: "???"
"Hahaha, it must think Misty is just as dopey as it is!"
"Thud!"
Ash stopped talking.
"Uh… looks like Psyduck has acknowledged Misty."
Across the table, Brock smiled faintly.
He was holding a Vulpix in his arms.
"By the way, Brock, did the Pokémon Day Care owner give you that Vulpix?" Ash asked curiously, rubbing his lump-covered head.
"Yeah, and the owner was definitely a beautiful big sister, right?" Misty had returned to normal and joined in the teasing.
"Uh, well, um…"
Seeing Brock suddenly blush, the group let the matter drop.
"Natsume, where did you go yesterday?" Ash turned and looked at Natsume nearby.
"I went to be a keyboard warrior," Natsume said around a mouthful of dumplings.
"Keyboard warrior?" the group echoed, puzzled.
Team Rocket Headquarters.
Archer stood respectfully before Giovanni.
"In short, that's how it went.
By a twist of fate, Meowth, Jessie, and James rendered distinguished service!"
Archer finished recounting the prior night's hair-raising events to Giovanni.
"How about the data?" Giovanni asked.
"The data… seems to have been encrypted, but we should have it soon."
As Archer spoke, he clapped his hands.
Someone behind him stepped forward carrying a laptop.
Lines of dense text began to stream across the laptop's screen.
"The data left on site was all destroyed?"
"After Meowth finished the download, he planted a virus.
It's been handled properly," Archer replied respectfully.
"Meowth?" Giovanni pondered for a moment and asked no more.
He took the laptop and started reading.
On the last page, Giovanni froze for a beat.
He had come upon a certain keyboard warrior's message.
"Which brain-dead idiot came up with this plan, meow."
"If it were me, meow, I'd take these devices to major cities and open a Children's Pokémon Experience Center, meow."
"Advertise that by wearing this device, you can experience the life of various Pokémon.
It'll absolutely blow up, meow!"
"That way you not only get the data you need, you also make a fortune, meow.
Most importantly—it's safe, meow!"
"So who came up with this time-consuming, labor-intensive, brain-dead plan of kidnapping children, meow!"
Gio·Brain-dead·vanni: "…"
"Subordinate requests promotions and raises for Jessie, James, and Meowth!"
Across from him, Archer gave a slight bow.
"Ahem… except Meowth," Giovanni said.
"Very well," Archer nodded, and moved to give orders.
"Wait," Giovanni called Archer back.
"What is it, boss?"
"Meowth gets a special reward," Giovanni amended.
"Uh… yes, boss."
Archer found the boss's about-face strange, but asked no further.
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