Kanto region.
Pewter City.
The temporary repair shop.
Over a hundred Dragon Ascendant players stood ready, fully equipped, Pokémon at peak condition, the atmosphere sharp with focused intent.
Guild Master Ryuji swept his gaze across every member, his eyes hard and steady.
“Move out immediately.
Bring full stocks of medicine and do not hold back on Max Potions.
Remember the plan.”
“Solo players, small guilds, everyone else, let them go first.
Let them burn through Mewtwo’s initial state.”
“When Mewtwo is exhausted and everyone else has ground each other down, that is when Dragon Ascendant moves in.”
“The first Legendary Pokémon on this server belongs to us.”
The words landed like a hammer.
Every player answered in unison, the collective response filling the room.
The group dispersed quickly, loading onto pre-arranged speedboats in staggered groups and cutting through the dark water toward coordinates that most of the world had learned only hours ago.
Everyone understood what tonight meant.
New Island was about to host the most significant battle the game had seen since launch.
At the same time.
Indigo Plateau headquarters.
Lance had not slept.
His red cape moved as he crossed the command room, the weight of a Champion’s authority settling over everyone present.
The table was covered in classified documents, experimental reports, and investigation files.
Team Rocket’s crimes, the human experimentation, the artificial Legendary initiative, had been laid out in full.
Lance drew a slow breath.
“All League investigators and elite Trainer units.
Full deployment.
Move to New Island immediately and shut down Team Rocket’s illegal operation.”
“Sir.”
Helicopters lifted from the plateau one after another, carrying Lance and his investigators out over the open ocean.
Lance watched the dark water below and let his thoughts run.
The mysterious informant’s warning had not left him.
Watch out for Giovanni.
The words had settled somewhere deep and refused to move.
He had not touched Viridian Gym yet.
Moving against Giovanni without ironclad evidence would destabilize the entire Kanto region and accomplish nothing but alerting the target.
Giovanni’s roots ran too deep and his cover was too complete.
New Island was the opening move.
The first crack in Team Rocket’s facade.
Once the evidence from the island was secured and confirmed, he would have everything he needed to begin dismantling Giovanni’s operation from the ground up.
Then the comm unit in his ear crackled with a startled voice.
“What is it?” Lance’s brow drew together.
“Look at the surface below.
There are people down there.
A lot of people.
Estimated count is already at two thousand.”
“What?” Lance looked down immediately.
The dark ocean was dotted with moving shapes.
Speedboats, cutting toward the island in scattered groups.
Trainers?
Or Team Rocket?
The helicopter held position.
Sea wind snapped at Lance’s cape.
He narrowed his eyes and studied the surface below, counting the lights.
“Get me a count and determine their direction of travel,” he said.
The analyst worked quickly.
“Confirmed.
Targets are not operating in any unified formation.
Dozens of separate groups, all heading for New Island.
Equipment and Pokémon configurations are inconsistent.
These are not trained Team Rocket operatives.”
Not Team Rocket.
Lance’s expression grew darker.
Over two thousand unidentified Trainers converging simultaneously on a classified research facility.
This was not a coincidence.
“Alert the forward units.
Split half to establish a perimeter in the outer waters and intercept anyone attempting to land without authorization.” Lance’s voice was clipped and precise.
“The rest come with me to the island.”
New Island housed an active high-risk experimental site and an unknown artificial Legendary Pokémon.
Unsanctioned entry would only produce casualties.
“Understood.”
Several helicopters peeled off and dropped low over the water, searchlights cutting across the speedboat fleet below as the loudspeakers opened up.
“This area is under temporary lockdown.
All vessels halt immediately.
Stop engines and prepare for inspection.
Approach to New Island is prohibited.”
The ocean erupted into chaos.
Ryuji stood at the prow of his speedboat, looking up at the League helicopters circling overhead, his expression darkening.
He had expected the League to intervene.
He had not expected them to arrive this quickly or seal off the surrounding waters this effectively.
“Guild Master, that’s the Kanto League.
What do we do?” The player beside him kept his voice low but urgent.
“Stay calm.” Ryuji swept his gaze across the water.
In the darkness he could make out an enormous number of speedboats, players from every faction mixed together in a churning, noisy mass.
Split off a group to stall them, make noise, draw attention.
Main force goes around the perimeter and lands on the western shallows.”
“Got it.”
The order moved through the ranks.
The fleet divided almost immediately.
One group slowed their boats and began shouting up at the helicopters, waving their arms, making a spectacle of cooperating with the inspection while tying up as many League personnel as possible.
The rest used the darkness as cover, swung wide, and drove hard toward the weakest point in the League’s cordon.
League investigators responded by deploying Water-type Pokémon directly into the ocean.
Blastoise and Gyarados threw up walls of water and surged toward the fleeing boats, trying to force them to stop.
But there were too many players and too many vessels moving in too many directions at once.
The defensive line developed gaps almost immediately.
Dozens of speedboats punched through the cordon in the confusion and drove hard for New Island’s shore.
At the same time.
Viridian City.
Viridian Gym.
Giovanni was in the middle of issuing instructions to Ariana and several others regarding Team Rocket’s planned expansion into the Johto region when his secretary Matori burst through the door in a state of visible panic.
“Boss.
We have a problem.”
Giovanni’s brow tightened slightly.
“New Island has been compromised.
Lance is leading a Kanto League force there right now.
And there’s a large group of unidentified Trainers moving in as well.”
Giovanni was on his feet before she finished speaking.
New Island was the centerpiece of everything.
Nothing could be allowed to go wrong there.
Mewtwo’s creation had consumed decades of effort and resources.
Every step of the project had been conducted in deep secrecy.
They had chosen a remote island far from Kanto’s populated areas specifically to avoid detection.
A mole?
Impossible.
Within Team Rocket itself, only Giovanni and a handful of his most trusted people had ever been told about the project.
There was no way the Kanto League could have learned anything about the Mewtwo Initiative.
And yet they not only knew about it, they had located New Island’s position in a single night.
A cold sweat crept down Giovanni’s back.
He did not believe for a moment that the Kanto League had the intelligence capacity to uncover all of this on their own.
Someone was working against him.
Someone had done this deliberately.
Who?
Who was moving against Team Rocket from the shadows?
….
STONES Please💎
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