"Gym Leader Grey, this is something my brother told me to bring you."
Gary walked over and held the glass-marble-like object out in front of Grey.
It was a white stone overall, with a DNA double helix in the center formed by red and black.
"Hm?"
Grey raised an eyebrow. He hadn't expected Blue to send him something like this.
[Glass marble? What's that for? Is it for Gym Leader Grey to flick at people?]
[Hard to say. Looks like something you'd roll around in your hand.]
[A bunch of outsiders, huh? This is a Mega Stone. Don't know which Pokémon it belongs to, but every single one is worth a fortune!]
Right now, not many trainers publicly controlled Mega Evolution—only a small number of Champions, plus the Kalos Champion and Elite Four had used it in front of the public.
Steven was one of them.
The way his Shiny Metagross looked after Mega Evolving was insanely cool.
It instantly won over a huge number of trainers.
[So why is the "second young master's" brother giving Gym Leader Grey a Mega Stone?]
[The more you think about it, the more it smells fishy.]
[Easy there, everyone—too much talking.]
[Back when the S.S. Anne had that incident, Gym Leader Grey saved my little brother. Giving him a Mega Stone in return isn't over the line, is it?]
[Oh, that makes sense now.]
[Yeah, fair.]
Blue's message made everyone understand immediately.
So Grey saved Gary's life.
Then as the older brother, Blue really did have to show some gratitude.
"This is a bit too valuable."
Grey didn't accept it right away.
He knew exactly how expensive Mega Stones were.
At auctions, whenever a Mega Stone appeared, the price shot up into the hundreds of thousands—sometimes even the millions.
And the one Blue sent was especially precious.
[Item: Blazikenite]
[Description: A mysterious Mega Stone. If held by a Blaziken, it can Mega Evolve during battle.]
Blaziken—one of Grey's main team members.
Not only was it terrifying in direct combat, it was also strong as support.
With Baton Pass, it could bring Grey's ace Annihilape in already at full power.
And after Mega Evolving, Blaziken's ability didn't change.
Its strength, however, skyrocketed.
That was why Grey said this Mega Stone was far too valuable.
[Gym Leader Grey, don't worry. I picked this up in the wild when I was studying in Kalos. Back then I just thought it looked cool and grabbed it, and none of my Pokémon can use it anyway.]
[So to me, it's just a normal Mega Stone that doesn't do much besides look nice.]
[Blue is really flexing, huh? Mega Stones are ridiculously hard to find—just "picking one up" in the wild? That's some insane luck.]
Blue's comments made everyone feel envy, jealousy, and hatred all at once.
Mega Stones enabled Mega Evolution, and Pokémon that could Mega Evolve were rare.
That was exactly why Mega Stones were so expensive.
Scarcity aside, it was also an item that directly boosted a Pokémon's power.
And under those conditions, Blue just happened to find one.
How could people not be jealous?
Even Grey thought it was absurd.
Finding a Mega Stone while walking around in the wild?
If everyone had that kind of luck, Kalos would've been "Key Stones everywhere, Mega Stones on every street corner."
…
…
Meanwhile, at the Kanto League.
This battle wasn't very exciting, and after watching the stream, everyone felt like sighing.
But a single comment from Gary snapped them out of it.
Lance sat in his seat, thinking for a long time before speaking slowly. "If I'd known, I would've sent a Mega Stone over too."
"Oh?" Lorelei raised an eyebrow. "You have a Mega Stone?"
Mega Stones were extremely rare. Even she hadn't managed to get one.
She hadn't expected Lance to have one.
"I do, but I don't know which Pokémon it's for," Lance said, pausing. "I thought sending an unidentified Mega Stone would be a bad idea, so I didn't."
He hadn't expected even Blue to send Grey a Mega Stone.
Looks like he'd overthought it.
"Lance," Bruno suddenly spoke up, "my friend said one of Team Plasma's Seven Sages might have smuggled his way into Kanto again."
He put down his phone and showed the screen to Lance. "Take a look. We don't know which city he slipped into. And right now, most cities in Kanto don't even have their Gym Leaders around, so honestly… it could be anywhere."
Bruno wasn't much of a thinker.
Compared to him, Lance—who could handle both strategy and force—liked taking this kind of problem onto his shoulders.
"Zinzolin is currently imprisoned at Indigo Plateau. Even if Team Plasma's leader came personally, there's no way they can break in," Lance said, propping his chin up and eliminating possibilities one by one.
"Saffron City is also impossible. Kanto's strongest forces are gathered there right now, and the Gym Leaders are all together. Even if all Seven Sages showed up, they probably couldn't leave unscathed."
"Cerulean City is out—there's nothing worth stealing."
"Lavender Town is out…"
"…Out."
He ruled out a long list.
In the end, only Cinnabar Island and Celadon City remained.
Cinnabar Island had a research lab, and with Blaine gone, it was essentially leaderless.
Celadon City also had a Team Rocket base. The League had sent people in before, but they hadn't found any real traces.
Under those circumstances, Team Plasma had previously sent one of the Seven Sages to collaborate with a Team Rocket executive—who knew what kind of deal had been made.
Other than that, there really wasn't anywhere in Kanto worth Team Plasma going to the trouble of smuggling into.
"So what's the plan? We can't mobilize everyone," Lorelei said, thinking through options.
"Let me think," Lance said, still considering how to respond to Team Plasma's arrival.
Team Plasma wasn't some unstoppable force, but among the Seven Sages there were trainers with Elite Four–level strength.
That kind of enemy was catastrophic for a Kanto region whose mid-tier strength wasn't very reliable.
Once the top trainers were gone, Kanto and Johto would become a hot commodity—anyone and everyone would want to stick their hands in.
"Lorelei, you go to Cinnabar Island. One Champion-level fighter should be enough against a Sage," Lance decided. "Agatha, Bruno—you two stay at Indigo Plateau. I'll be out for the next few days, moving around and checking different places."
After assigning tasks, Lance picked up the phone and notified the departments to send any available trainers out on patrol, in case other cities got hit by Team Plasma.
…
…
Unova, Victory Road.
"Lord Ghetsis, why are we sending Colress out to Kanto?" one of the Seven Sages, Rood, asked with a frown. "And why are we deliberately telling the outside world that a Seven Sage is going to Kanto?"
Colress was a scientist Ghetsis had acquired recently—no one knew where he'd come from.
A pure researcher, focused on science and developing devices.
It seemed like Ghetsis had found him because of N.
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