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"Damn it! You actually sent Moltres after a traitor like me, Sabrina! Has Team Rocket gone completely insane?"
Blaine was riding on his Charizard's back, constantly dodging Moltres' flaming attacks.
Although he was a Fire-type specialist—an Gym Leader-level Fire-type specialist at that—he still looked utterly overwhelmed when facing the Fire-type legendary Pokémon Moltres.
In fact, it was only thanks to his expertise with Fire-types that he had survived this long. Anyone less familiar with Fire-type Pokémon would have already been burned to ashes.
Originally, when Blaine had been in Celadon City, he had defected early with the incomplete Mewtwo after his encounter with Eddie.
For the past several days, he had been hiding from Team Rocket on Cinnabar Island while working to perfect Mewtwo in his secret underground laboratory.
Blaine's laboratory was located deep beneath the volcanic mountain range on Cinnabar Island. He had found a location where the underground magma would never flow—a place where the temperature was just suitable for human survival—and had constructed his laboratory there.
After defecting from Celadon City with Mewtwo, he had been hiding in this location, working tirelessly to complete Mewtwo's development.
Because the environment was so harsh and Cinnabar Island was Blaine's home territory, even the powerful Team Rocket had difficulty locating his hiding place. Moreover, even if they did find it, they might not be able to defeat Blaine, who held the home-field advantage.
Therefore, Team Rocket had allowed Blaine to evade capture until now.
But Blaine's luck had finally run out. He had been discovered at last.
Sabrina, one of Team Rocket's three executives, had used the power of the Marsh Badge to capture Moltres—one of the three legendary birds—at Indigo Plateau. She had then controlled Moltres and flown to Cinnabar Island.
Moltres wasn't afraid of the active volcano here. The temperature of the magma was like warm bathwater to the legendary bird.
Therefore, under Sabrina's command, Moltres had simply and brutally plunged into the magma at the volcano's peak and located Blaine's laboratory within the underground magma channels.
That was how Blaine's laboratory had been discovered.
Fortunately, because Mewtwo was nearly complete, it had subconsciously sensed the approaching danger. It had immediately warned Blaine and transmitted a message to Eddie across the great distance. However, since Mewtwo hadn't fully awakened yet, it had fallen back asleep after delivering the warnings to both of them.
Regardless, now that Blaine had received the warning, he had mounted his Charizard and flown out to confront the enemy.
This wasn't just because he no longer needed to hide. Fighting outside would also draw Sabrina's attention away from the laboratory itself, preventing her from destroying it.
Mewtwo was still inside, waiting for Eddie to arrive. Blaine couldn't allow Sabrina to harm Mewtwo while it remained dormant and vulnerable.
"For you? Blaine, you certainly are capable and an excellent researcher, but Team Rocket wouldn't send out Moltres just to capture you alone," Sabrina called out.
"Tell me the truth right now—where is Mewtwo? If you tell me honestly, I might leave you somewhat intact!"
Sabrina was holding the Marsh Badge and standing on Moltres' back as she pursued Blaine.
Although Moltres' entire body was covered in blazing flames, as its controller—even though she was using the Badge to control it—the legendary bird naturally regulated its body temperature so that Sabrina wouldn't be burned by the intense heat of its flames.
When Blaine heard this, he thought to himself that they had indeed come for Mewtwo.
Yes, although Blaine was quite capable and an excellent researcher, Team Rocket wouldn't deploy the legendary Moltres just for him.
But who told him to take Team Rocket's most important research project—Mewtwo—when he defected?
What was Mewtwo? Team Rocket had gathered genetic material from most of the Pokémon species in the world and added the extremely precious Mew genes to create an artificial Pokémon—or rather, an artificial legendary Pokémon.
They had been planning to use Mewtwo to dominate the Kanto Region, and eventually the entire Pokémon world. Their original plan hadn't included the three legendary birds at all. They had only needed this Mewtwo, codenamed "Beyond Dreams."
But Blaine, who had been in charge of Mewtwo's development, had defected. If Blaine had defected alone, it wouldn't have been such a serious problem. There was no shortage of researchers in the world—Team Rocket could simply find another one.
But when Blaine defected, he had taken Mewtwo with him. Team Rocket couldn't tolerate this. Or rather, Giovanni couldn't tolerate this.
Regardless of whether Mewtwo was complete or not, it was ultimately the product of Team Rocket's research and the key to their plan to dominate the Kanto Region.
And Blaine had stolen it!
"Sabrina, after you capture Moltres, use the Badge to control it and immediately fly to Cinnabar Island. Find Blaine, then interrogate him about Mewtwo's whereabouts."
"Whether or not you obtain any information about Mewtwo, Blaine must not be allowed to live. He betrayed Team Rocket, so burn him to ashes."
This was the mission Giovanni had given to Sabrina. That was why Sabrina had controlled Moltres to fly to Cinnabar Island—to find Blaine, learn where Mewtwo was, and then eliminate him.
However, Sabrina either didn't understand subtlety or simply didn't care about Mewtwo that much. After asking about Mewtwo's location, she had immediately stated she wouldn't spare Blaine anyway.
"Your question is rather contradictory. It seems like you want to kill me more than you want to find Mewtwo, doesn't it?" Blaine couldn't help but comment sarcastically.
But now he was in even greater danger, because Sabrina clearly wanted to eliminate him as quickly as possible.
"Mewtwo has flaws that cannot be ignored. Now that we at Team Rocket have obtained the three legendary birds and created a device using their power, Mewtwo's importance is limited," Sabrina stated coldly.
This was what Sabrina believed, and she assumed Giovanni shared her opinion. He just wouldn't openly say that Blaine must be killed no matter what.
"Hmph! This is how Team Rocket has always treated traitors. I'm very busy right now, so I don't want to waste any more time on you. Whether you tell me or not doesn't matter anymore. Just surrender and let Moltres burn you to ashes!"
"Moltres! Use Heat Wave!"
"A wide-range attack? Charizard, counter with Heat Wave!"
Heat Wave—a Fire-type move with a power rating of ninety-five. But that wasn't the crucial part. The key was that its method of attack involved blowing scorching hot breath toward the opponent.
The attack range of this move was already quite large, and with Moltres using it, the range would be even more massive.
At this moment, it seemed as if the entire Cinnabar Island was being engulfed by a searing wind bearing down on Charizard and Blaine.
Blaine had Charizard use Heat Wave as well to fight back, but although it was called a counterattack, he was really just trying to resist Moltres' assault.
However, even Blaine's strongest Pokémon—his Charizard, who possessed Elite-level strength—still couldn't confront Moltres head-on.
Charizard's Heat Wave held out for only about ten seconds before being overwhelmed by Moltres' attack. The enemy's Heat Wave was already bearing down on them.
Although the move had been significantly weakened due to Charizard's resistance and might not defeat Blaine and Charizard in a single blow, it didn't matter if it couldn't finish them immediately. Sabrina had been planning to injure them first from the very beginning.
If that happened, Blaine would undoubtedly fall into an even more perilous situation.
"Garchomp! Use Hyper Beam!"
Just as the attack was about to strike Blaine and Charizard, a beam of devastating energy directly dispersed the greatly weakened Heat Wave.
Both Blaine and Sabrina immediately turned their sharp gazes toward the source of the attack, searching for whoever had just intervened in their battle.
Then they saw him.
Eddie stood atop a Garchomp that radiated an Elite-level aura, looking at them with a serious expression.
"Eddie!" both voices called out simultaneously.
Two exclamations—one of relief and one of excitement—came from Blaine and Sabrina respectively.
But after they finished shouting, they both realized something was wrong.
Sabrina and Blaine looked at each other in confusion. "Why are you so happy? You don't even know him!"
Eddie remained silent, watching the exchange awkwardly.
These two didn't realize that they both knew Eddie separately.