"No, no… that's not it."
After a brief moment of hesitation, Silas decisively chose to change his line of thinking.
What if the other party wasn't relying on a Pokémon's innate ability, but on the special effects of a move instead?
"If I remember correctly, there's a very distinctive move over in the Hoenn region."
He frowned slightly.
"Come out, Serperior."
"Ser~"
The Serperior that suddenly appeared in the forest looked a little dazed.
Almost instinctively, it hid the snacks it was holding behind its back with its Vine Whip.
Silas shot it a helpless look.
He had no idea how this little guy managed to find his carefully hidden snacks every single time.
"Just this once," Silas said irritably.
"Don't do it again."
"Ser~"
Serperior narrowed its eyes happily.
It knew that meant it was safe this time.
As for next time?
Next time for sure.
After all, it wasn't the first time Silas had said that.
"Focus. See if any of the large trees nearby feel… unusual."
Getting back to business, Silas' expression immediately turned serious.
Serperior nodded repeatedly to show it understood.
That said, the way it stuffed the last bite of snacks into its mouth before closing its eyes wasn't very convincing.
Under Silas' resigned gaze, a faint green glow rippled outward from Serperior's body.
Rustle—rustle.
Influenced by Grass-type energy, the leaves of the surrounding trees began to sway.
After seven or eight seconds, Serperior opened its large eyes.
"Ser!"
It pointed with its vines.
Following the direction, Silas' gaze landed on an utterly ordinary Berry tree.
"Just as I thought."
Silas felt his suspicion settle.
This meant his guess was almost certainly correct.
He quickly walked up to the unremarkable tree and raised his arm, placing his hand against the trunk.
"Blaz!" "Pidge!" "Giga!"
The three Pokémon beside him cried out in surprise.
Under their combined gaze, Silas' hand sank into the tree trunk, without encountering any resistance at all.
Blaziken raised a claw and tried it as well.
The result was the same.
Its claw slipped directly into the trunk.
This felt completely different from when it normally sharpened its claws against trees—there was no resistance whatsoever.
"Let's go. We're heading inside."
Silas smiled and stepped forward first.
In an instant, his entire body vanished into the slender tree trunk.
"Togekiss, Serperior, stop fooling around and get in here."
His voice gradually faded within the dark oak forest.
"Giga!"
Seeing Blaziken and Pidgeot follow their Trainer straight into the tree, Gigalith didn't forget to urge the two lagging Pokémon before entering as well.
Togekiss widened its tiny, bean-like eyes and shot Serperior a glare.
Then it flapped its wings and glided in.
Serperior gracefully licked its lips.
Enjoying snacks alone every now and then really was amazing.
Still, seeing Silas and the others disappear, it quickly slithered forward and dove into the tree trunk.
Thunk.
The moment it entered, Serperior's soft body slammed into a massive rock.
"Toge—Toge!"
Togekiss floated in midair, letting out a mocking laugh.
Serperior looked up.
It was Gigalith.
No need to think, Gigalith's personality meant it would never pull a prank like this.
That left only one culprit.
"Ser, ser!"
"Toge, toge!"
The two Pokémon immediately began bickering again.
The enormous cavern instantly grew noisy.
Silas sighed helplessly but didn't intervene.
According to Gigalith's and Blaziken's earlier scouting, there were no enemies left in this area.
There was no need to worry about alerting anyone.
He looked around at the surroundings, which were indistinguishable from an ordinary rocky cave.
"As expected… a Secret Base constructed using Secret Power."
He clicked his tongue in amazement.
Secret Power, a Normal-type move.
Its general effect was similar to Nature Power, which Serperior could use: depending on the terrain or battlefield conditions, it would transform into different attacks.
Additionally, Secret Power had a 30% chance to inflict a corresponding secondary effect.
That was no small number.
Take freezing, for example.
Most moves with a freezing side effect had success rates of less than 10%.
Secret Power's chance to freeze was three times higher.
The difference was striking.
But even that wasn't Secret Power's greatest value.
As Silas was now witnessing firsthand, the true strength of the move lay in creating a hidden Secret Base like this one—concealed within a tree trunk, yet resembling a full rocky cavern.
Calling it "hidden" wasn't quite right.
To Silas, it felt more like carving out an entirely separate subspace.
This perfectly explained why all the footprints outside had abruptly vanished.
A Secret Base created by Secret Power didn't have just one entrance.
Rocks, trees, bushes, any of these could act as secondary access points.
As long as the area remained within range, the Pokémon that created it could freely designate entrances.
"Tch… looks like I'll have to get the little ones to learn this move sometime."
Silas couldn't help but sigh.
He already knew what Secret Power did—but seeing it with his own eyes was far more impactful.
For someone like him, who spent most of his time in the wild, a Secret Base like this was incredibly practical.
Of course, that was easier said than done.
Research showed that while most Pokémon could learn Secret Power through training, not all were capable of using it to construct a Secret Base.
Beyond special requirements for the target object, like the tree trunk Silas had entered, there were also very high demands on the Pokémon using the move.
On top of that, finding Trainers in Kanto or Johto with extensive experience teaching Secret Power was difficult.
Such people were far more common in Hoenn.
That was why Silas hadn't considered this move earlier.
In Kanto and Johto, Pokémon proficient in Secret Power were extremely rare.
"But still…" Silas muttered in surprise,
"Has Team Rocket's reach already extended into Hoenn?"
He was genuinely astonished.
If Kanto and Johto didn't lack a dominant criminal organization due to various historical reasons, Team Rocket would never have been able to grow this large.
Hoenn, after all, was different.
There were two major criminal organizations there, Team Magma and Team Aqua.
And those two were sworn enemies in every sense of the word.
For outside criminal forces to interfere there was practically impossible.
Team Rocket's current strength was impressive, but compared to those two long-established organizations, they were still clearly weaker.
"Or…" Silas' eyes narrowed slightly,
"Could this place have been left behind by Team Magma?"
He quickly arrived at another possibility.
He knew very well that Team Magma favored operating around volcanoes.
The mountain behind Azalea Town did, in fact, have a non-negligible chance of becoming one of their targets.
"If this really is Team Magma's handiwork, then the ones getting a headache next will be Team Rocket and Giovanni."
There was more than a hint of schadenfreude in his tone.
For ordinary League Trainers, watching two criminal organizations clash was always welcome.
As for peaceful coexistence?
That was impossible.
Someone had already crossed onto your "territory", there was no way Team Rocket would just sit back and watch.
Unless Giovanni had no intention of continuing to expand in Johto, a conflict with Team Magma was inevitable.
"I should head out and report this to Officer Jenny first."
After searching the area and finding no identifying marks, Silas gave up on further confirmation.
The existence of a Secret Base was not permanent.
Without continuous maintenance by its creator, the Secret Base would dissipate into the air after twelve hours.
Before that happened, aside from the main entrance, which could not be closed all secondary entrances could be completely erased.
Silas had no interest in finding out where people or objects inside would end up once the Secret Base vanished.
He was still young. He had no desire to tempt fate.
Ignoring the protests of the two smaller troublemakers, Silas recalled all four of his Pokémon, except Blaziken back into their Poké Balls.
This place was large enough as it was; if several large-bodied Pokémon crowded together, it would already be packed to the brim.
With a single step, Silas exited the Secret Base.
He turned back to look at the tree trunk, still finding it hard to believe.
This thing really did resemble a platform from a movie he had watched in his previous life.
"Hello, Officer Jenny?"
With that thought, he placed the call.
"I've discovered a base that appears to have been left behind by Team Magma."
"Understood. I'll immediately dispatch personnel to secure the area."
Officer Jenny nodded repeatedly as she listened to Silas' report.
"What's going on? Did you find Team Rocket?"
Captain Ajay asked from the side.
"No." Officer Jenny's expression hardened.
"It's something even more troublesome.
Team Magma may be preparing to take action nearby."
As she spoke, she took out a communicator and began issuing orders.
"Officers, take your respective teams to the volcanic crater behind the mountain. Team Magma is suspected to be active in the area. Suspend the forest search mission.
If you detect their presence, report immediately and do your utmost to delay their actions."
Rumble—
A sudden tremor interrupted Officer Jenny mid-command.
"Looks like delaying them won't be necessary after all."
Captain Ajay clutched a tree trunk to steady himself, looking rather disheveled.
"All units, stop searching immediately and proceed to the volcano!"
Also struggling to maintain her balance, Officer Jenny quickly released her Arcanine and mounted it.
With Arcanine's support, she stabilized herself and issued new orders through the communicator.
However, she had overlooked one thing.
Under such violent shaking, maintaining balance was difficult for everyone, Officer Jenny and the task force members alike.
Not every Growlithe or Arcanine under the other Officers was as powerful as her partner.
"I'll go ahead and delay them."
Silas' voice came through the communicator.
With both Pokémon strength and physical conditioning far above average, he wasn't afraid of this situation.
"Be careful. We'll arrive as soon as possible."
Officer Jenny hesitated for a moment, then decisively agreed.
"Pidgeot, take me up."
Cradled by Blaziken, Silas reached to his waist and released his sky-borne Pokémon once more.
"Pidgeot!"
With a sharp cry, the broad-winged Pidgeot carried Blaziken and Silas into the air, soaring straight toward the volcanic crater where thick smoke was beginning to rise.
Elsewhere.
"F-Fatty… doesn't this situation feel kind of… wrong?"
The trembling skinny grunt barely managed to speak.
He felt like the body pressed flat against the ground beneath him might snap apart at any moment.
"D-Don't panic," the fat grunt panted.
"It's not that bad."
"You're sure?!"
The skinny grunt's voice rose involuntarily.
"Nonsense. Shut up and listen to me."
The fat grunt was resolute.
"If I don't make it out of this alive, I'm haunting you for sure."
The skinny grunt threatened shakily.
"—Piii!"
A sharp bird cry rang out overhead.
Silas glanced down.
So this was the Team Rocket group they had been searching for earlier.
Just small fry, he'd deal with them later.
Stopping Team Magma came first.
He looked toward the vague figures standing atop the volcano.
If the volcano erupted, at least two-thirds of the surrounding Ilex Forest would be affected.
Leaving aside how many Pokémon would lose their lives, the chain reaction of consequences would be devastating.
"Lord Blaise…"
Naturally, Team Magma had already noticed Pidgeot and Silas on its back.
They turned toward their leader.
"There's no need to worry. Continue."
Blaise stood with his hands clasped behind his back, utterly composed.
"Yes!"
The grunts wiped the sweat from their brows and resumed operating the machinery.
While their brains weren't particularly sharp, they had absolute faith in Blaise's strength.
Unless Bugsy personally intervened, no one around here could face Blaise head-on alone.
"This is bad…"
Thanks to Pidgeot's high-speed flight, Silas rapidly closed the distance.
Seeing the enemy clearly, he found the situation extremely troublesome.
"One of the Three Admins… Blaise, huh?"
Silas' expression grew grim.
Team Magma's uniforms and insignia were easy to recognize, and the attire of the elite Three Admins differed clearly from that of ordinary grunts.
Simply put.
Grunts wore cloaks without hoods.
The Three Admins wore cloaks with hoods.
The burly man wearing a hood was obviously the latter.
And this was an external operation.
Familiar with Team Magma's structure, Silas immediately identified the man's status.
"At least two Elite–level Pokémon… this is going to be rough."
Silas suddenly felt that waiting for Bugsy to arrive might be the wiser choice.
All six of his core Pokémon had only just broken through to pseudo–Elite level, there was no way he could take this head-on.
Although Blaise tended to die quickly in records, resulting in little available intelligence, Silas didn't believe for a second that the man lacked even a single Elite–level Pokémon.
If one of Team Magma's three top commanders were that weak, the organization wouldn't dare call itself Hoenn's greatest criminal force.
....
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