With Myron's arrival, the crowd immediately found their backbone. The fear and unease on their faces began to fade.
Seeing this, Sato suddenly came to understand what a Gym Leader truly meant to the people of a city.
To him, becoming a Gym Leader had simply been a means to grow stronger; if a better opportunity arose in the future, he wouldn't hesitate to pass the title of Gym Leader to someone else.
But now, Sato had a new perspective on what it meant to be a Gym Leader. As for the future, he was beginning to feel uncertain…
Still, now wasn't the time to be thinking about that, because Myron was already walking over with the others.
"Leader Sato, let's discuss the next phase of our rescue efforts. I'd like to secure the civilians first, then move on to counterattack…"
Sato waved his hand to cut Myron off. "You handle that part. Just tell me what I need to do."
Myron froze, then saw that Sato was completely serious. After quickly collecting his thoughts, he continued, "In that case, I'll trouble you to lead a team to the Pokémon Center. We can't resume any logistics until it's operational again."
"No need. I'll go alone, it's faster that way."
As soon as he finished speaking, Sato released Sharpedo and shot off through the sky before anyone could protest.
Myron and the others exchanged looks, but ultimately chose not to send anyone after him. More importantly, they couldn't catch up anyway.
Sato was simply too fast…
---
On the other end, Sato rode Sharpedo and reached the Pokémon Center in a blink.
As a strategic facility, the Pokémon Center had naturally been one of Team Rocket's primary targets.
But from above, the building didn't look like it had been attacked at all.
"Ralts, scan the area."
"Okay, Toto."
A few seconds later, Ralts opened its eyes, looking concerned. "Toto, there are people inside, but none of them are moving. I didn't see any Pokémon either."
"Sharpedo, take us down."
"Shaaa!"
Sato landed in the backyard of the Pokémon Center. As soon as he stepped inside, he saw several people collapsed on the ground, breathing heavily but unresponsive.
"It's a nightmare!" Ralts leapt off Sato's shoulder and bounded toward one of the unconscious figures.
Ralts pulled out the Nightmare Orb given to it by Darkrai and pressed it to the person's forehead.
A stream of purple-pink energy flowed out from the person's head and was quickly absorbed into the Nightmare Orb.
Ralts repeated the process on each of the unconscious people. Sato said nothing the entire time, but his expression grew increasingly grim.
His first thought was of Darkrai, but he quickly dismissed that idea. The energy being absorbed by the Nightmare Orb was purple-pink, which didn't match.
This color of nightmare looked more like something produced by a Psychic-type Pokémon. And being able to sustain it for this long made Sato immediately think of one person…
Ariana. One of the four Admins of Team Rocket.
"A clash was inevitable…" Sato sighed softly. If it really was her, this battle wasn't going to be easy.
"Toto, the nightmare states have been cleared. You can wake them up now. But none of them have Poké Balls, they were probably all stolen by Team Rocket."
"Mhm, let's save the people first," Sato nodded, then instructed Gengar to go deliver the situation report to Joseph, and Myron as well.
"Gen~"
Once Gengar was gone, Sato turned his attention back to Ralts. Watching it scurry around on those tiny legs nonstop, he couldn't hold back anymore.
"…Ralts, did you forget you can evolve?"
Ralts froze, staring blankly for two seconds before replying via telepathy with a "firm" tone, "I just wanted to see how much my ability to control the Nightmare Orb varies between different forms…
Yeah, that's it!"
Then Ralts evolved into Kirlia.
After pretending to absorb the nightmare energy from two people, it finally evolved again… into Gardevoir.
Now fully evolved, Gardevoir shot a sideways glance at Sato. "No bullying me!"
Sato: …?
After evolving, Gardevoir stopped running entirely. It used its Psychic powers to control the Nightmare Orb, sending it flying rapidly through the entire Pokémon Center, absorbing nightmare energy remotely.
Compared to Ralts and those little legs, Gardevoir's efficiency was in a whole different league.
---
At the exact moment Ralts first absorbed a nightmare using the Orb, somewhere far away, a Hypno suddenly opened its eyes. Its Hypnosis Pendulum fell straight to the ground.
"The nightmare… was broken?" asked a voluptuous woman nearby, frowning.
If Sato had been there, he would have instantly confirmed that his suspicions were spot on. The one behind the nightmares was none other than one of Team Rocket's four Admins: Ariana!
"Hyno," Hypno nodded, frustration flashing through its eyes.
"That's enough. We've delayed them for over ten hours," Ariana stopped Hypno and then turned to leave.
"Olivine City reinforcements have arrived. Begin the night raid at 2 a.m."
"Yes, ma'am!"
As Ariana looked over the cobbled-together squadron in front of her -gathered from all over- she couldn't help but feel helplessness.
Team Rocket's ambition to launch a full-scale city raid wasn't as easy as it sounded.
To her, this whole operation felt more like a new leader purging internal dissent under the guise of action. The ruthlessness of the strategy made even a veteran like her feel uneasy.
Just for the sake of boosting Team Rocket's reputation, so many lives were being thrown away. To Ariana, it seemed utterly pointless.
But she didn't dare say that aloud, doing so would mean death…
Now, she just had to wipe out the second wave of reinforcement units heading to Olivine City, and her mission would be complete.
As for the first wave?
Who would've guessed that one of the Johto League's Elite Four had been a Team Rocket member all along?
---
Once Gardevoir had finished absorbing all the nightmare energy inside the Pokémon Center, a single Heal Bell awakened everyone.
But when those people realized their Poké Balls had been stolen, many of them immediately turned on Sato.
Sato had long since seen the ugliest sides of human nature, so he didn't bother explaining. He simply released Tyranitar to suppress them all with overwhelming force.
Then, when Myron arrived with the others and confirmed that Olivine City had indeed been attacked, only then did the survivors finally accept reality.
Soon after, another team that had been sent to inspect the police station returned to the Pokémon Center.
The result…
Total annihilation.
"Team Rocket is brutal!"
"M-Mommy, I want to go home…"
"Are they coming back? What should we do…?"