"Hello, beautiful lady. I'm Brock from the Pewter Gym. It's an honor to meet you. I wonder if I might have the pleasure of inviting you to—"
BOOM!
Silas mercilessly brought his fist down on Brock's head, smashing him straight into the ground.
Then he turned to Cynthia with an apologetic expression.
"Sorry about that. Both of my friends have... certain issues with their brains."
"Hey, hey, do you know who you're talking about? Standing before you is the future youngest Pokémon Professor in history!"
Haruto protested loudly.
He was convinced that Silas was deliberately slandering him to make himself look better in front of a pretty girl.
As for Brock—
Having fallen unconscious for who knew how many times, he was naturally incapable of offering any response.
"Heh. Why don't you first figure out how to universally reproduce the phenomenon of Magikarp learning Hydro Pump?"
Silas snorted, completely unimpressed.
Even with Zero's assistance, he still hadn't figured out how to make an ordinary, weak Magikarp learn Hydro Pump.
He believed Haruto could eventually reach a conclusion, but it certainly wouldn't happen anytime soon.
Haruto flicked his hair dramatically.
"Relax! Something this simple is nothing for a genius like me~"
As he spoke, he even raised his little finger.
Silas looked at him speechlessly, wondering when exactly this guy had become so narcissistic.
After everyone introduced themselves and joked around for a while, the conversation finally returned to the main topic.
"Wait, you mean there's a Zapdos nearby?!"
Haruto's astonished shout echoed through the room.
Veins bulged on Silas's forehead.
"Could you stop yelling every five seconds? How many times has this happened already?!"
Who knew why someone with this kind of personality could be such an outstanding researcher?
Among all the researchers and professors Silas had met so far, only Haruto was like this.
Most others were calm and knowledgeable.
Well except for Professor Elm from Johto, who occasionally had his own odd moments.
To outsiders, this was probably the unique "personality" that all geniuses possessed.
Fortunately, there were only four people in the room at the moment.
Otherwise, this news would have caused a massive commotion.
"To be honest, though, I'm really curious about Legendary Pokémon."
Brock somehow produced a pair of rimless glasses and put them on, occasionally pushing them up his nose to appear scholarly.
Silas sighed helplessly.
They're just Legendary Pokémon. It's only Zapdos. What's so surprising?
His thoughts carried a distinctly smug tone.
Clearly, his perspective was entirely different from that of the other two men.
"What about Team Rocket's operation? Did they succeed? They failed on Articuno's side."
He didn't bother hiding the information.
After all, Brock and Haruto had the authority to know.
Cynthia brushed a strand of blonde hair behind her ear.
"They succeeded."
There was obvious helplessness in her voice.
Silas was startled.
"They broke through your defenses and defeated Zapdos? Are you okay?"
For Team Rocket to defeat both a future regional Champion and a Legendary Pokémon.
He couldn't imagine how much manpower and resources they had invested.
"I'm fine."
The eyes hidden behind her blonde hair looked slightly tired.
"The problem was that there were simply too many of them. I couldn't hold every position."
No matter how strong Cynthia was, she was still only one Trainer.
Human endurance had limits.
Besides, she'd only brought the standard six Pokémon with her on this trip.
One of them was even a Togekiss that was still in training.
Even if her other five Pokémon were all Champion-level or near-Champion-level, it was impossible to defend an entire forest.
Unlike Articuno, which lived atop a mountain that was easy to defend, Zapdos had temporarily settled near a lake deep within the mountains.
Such terrain made defense extremely difficult.
It wasn't that the League didn't want to send reinforcements.
Team Rocket's operation had simply been too secretive and too fast.
By the time Lance had reported the information, Team Rocket had already been on the move.
If not for that, Lance wouldn't have temporarily changed his route to ask her for help, eventually dragging Silas into the matter.
"Zapdos's condition isn't very good right now."
Cynthia sounded troubled.
"The League specially created a device similar to an 'electric converter' to help it recover. Even so, it's estimated that it will still take seven or eight years for it to fully recover."
Although nobody blamed her, Cynthia's strong sense of responsibility made her feel that the result stemmed from her own weakness.
In reality, even if Lance had been there instead, he probably wouldn't have done much better.
Her team had Pokémon with extraordinary mobility, such as Garchomp, and Pokémon like Lucario that could use Aura to sense their surroundings.
Within a forest, Roserade could also make far better use of its abilities.
As for Lance…
Defending the skies would have been fine.
But dealing with threats approaching from the ground or even underground would have given him a terrible headache.
"It's alright. At least Team Rocket failed on Articuno's side. They didn't manage to get all three Legendary Birds."
Silas tried to comfort her.
The next moment, however, Cynthia shook her head.
"No I think they actually succeeded."
Silas blinked.
"On the Seafoam Islands, Lorelei said that Team Rocket managed to steal some of Articuno's tail feathers.
The Articuno on Snowy Mountain was unharmed thanks to your help.
On One Island—Kindle Road's Mt. Ember, the Moltres there was attacked by Team Rocket and was seriously injured.
The Moltres connected to Blaine on Cinnabar Island was also attacked recently, though it wasn't badly hurt.
As for Zapdos both the one near here and the one near Vermilion City a year ago suffered serious injuries."
Cynthia listed Team Rocket's activities involving Legendary Pokémon over the past two years one by one.
The other three were utterly stunned.
By counting them, that already involved six Legendary Pokémon.
Although not every Legendary Bird was exceptionally powerful, none of them were weak either.
To launch operation after operation against them, Team Rocket truly stood out among criminal organizations.
"Team Rocket is that strong?"
Haruto looked bewildered.
That was also a question many high-ranking League officials had.
Nobody had expected that the descendant of that former female boss could take over Team Rocket and secretly develop it to such an extent in only a few years.
The incident had even caused changes among the League's upper ranks.
It could only be said that Giovanni had hidden himself extremely well.
Silas, however, focused on something entirely different.
"So Blaine still keeps in contact with Moltres?"
"Yes,"
This time, it was Brock who answered.
"I heard that Moltres once saved Blaine's life. That's how they became acquainted, and why it eventually chose to reside in the volcano on Cinnabar Island."
Of course, Brock himself wasn't entirely sure of the details.
He'd only heard fragments of the story from his grandfather.
That didn't stop him from filling in the blanks with his imagination.
"Then I guess the volcanic activity on Cinnabar Island shouldn't be a problem."
Silas nodded.
"Isn't that volcano always active anyway?" Haruto said casually. "And if it's Moltres, suppressing a volcano shouldn't be a problem."
Silas frowned thoughtfully.
"I still don't understand why Team Rocket wants the genes of the Legendary Birds. And the gap between their two operations was actually an entire year."
Brock patted him on the shoulder.
"Even if something big is happening, it's not something we can deal with. Better leave it to my dad and the others."
Even though Silas had been involved by chance, his role in the whole incident wasn't that significant.
If Lance and Cynthia hadn't suddenly appeared in Kanto and disrupted Team Rocket's plans, the people sent after Articuno would have been far more numerous and much stronger.
Besides, even without Silas, Chuck, who had been nearby, wouldn't have simply watched Team Rocket succeed.
He was a Trainer whose strength wasn't inferior to Lance's.
In the end, it all came down to one thing:
They simply weren't strong enough yet.
Silas felt that only when he truly became an Elite Four-level Trainer or even a Champion-level Trainer would he be able to influence the League itself.
"Oh, right. Do you want to come with me and visit Zapdos's recovery area? That big guy is actually pretty friendly."
Cynthia tilted her head and suddenly asked.
"W-What?! We can?!"
Haruto was the first to jump up.
Judging from his ace Pokémon, Electivire, it was obvious that he absolutely adored Electric-type Pokémon.
Naturally, the Electric-type Legendary Pokémon Zapdos was one of his dreams.
Brock, on the other hand, seemed less interested.
Neither Rock-types nor Water-types had particularly good matchups against Electric-types.
Still, from the perspective of a Pokémon Breeder, he wouldn't mind learning about a Legendary Pokémon's habits.
Both of them looked toward Silas.
Silas rubbed his nose.
"Why are you looking at me? Sure, let's go take a look."
He didn't mind.
As for his battle with Prinplup, it could always be postponed.
After all, he was the paying customer.
Besides, this brought him one step closer to his small goal of "collecting" the Pokédex entries of Legendary Pokémon.
Incidentally, that little goal had been something he'd decided on a whim after meeting the Legendary Beasts.
It sounded ridiculously ambitious and almost impossible.
But then he thought about Ash's absurd network of Legendary Pokémon connections.
Maybe it wasn't completely impossible after all.
"Then let's go. We can also use your Electric-type Pokémon to help Zapdos recover."
Cynthia turned and headed outside decisively.
Unlike her usual indecisiveness, she was surprisingly resolute this time.
A few moments later, several Pokémon shot into the sky from outside the town.
Haruto looked around and sorrowfully realized that his Pokémon had by far the least impressive presence.
Cynthia was riding her ace, Garchomp, whose enormous body and heavy aura clearly displayed its incredible strength.
Brock rode on Aerodactyl, an ancient fossil Pokémon and former apex predator of prehistoric times. Its rarity spoke for itself.
As for Silas's Pidgeot, there was no need to mention it.
After being strengthened by Sacred Fire, it looked noticeably different from ordinary Pidgeot and appeared extraordinarily majestic.
"Want to ride on my Pidgeot?"
Silas sat cross-legged on Pidgeot's back and invited Haruto.
"Otherwise, we'll just waste a lot of time."
Haruto, who was currently being carried through the air by his Crobat by the back of his clothes, had been about to agree.
But after hearing the second sentence, he immediately changed his attitude.
"No need! I can manage! Crobat, accelerate!"
"Craa!"
Crobat cried out and frantically beat its wings.
Unfortunately, there was simply no way it could match the speed of the other three Pokémon.
Half an hour later.
Deep within the mountains outside the city.
The Pokémon slowly descended onto an open clearing.
Haruto slid down from Pidgeot's back with a gloomy expression.
In the end, he'd still caved and accepted a ride.
There was no helping it.
Otherwise, they would have needed at least another half hour to get here.
Cynthia also jumped down from Garchomp's back.
She looked around with a somewhat confused expression.
For a moment, the forest was completely silent.
The weaker wild Pokémon had already hidden themselves after sensing the overwhelming auras of the four flying Pokémon.
"Garchomp."
Garchomp silently raised a claw and pointed in one direction.
"Ah! Right, it's over there. Let's go."
Cynthia nodded in satisfaction and started walking with her long strides.
Garchomp followed as if it had seen this countless times before, even waving its claw to signal the others to keep up.
Along the way, numerous Electric-type Pokémon could be seen throughout the forest.
"What are they doing here?"
Silas asked curiously.
"They're the same as us. They're heading toward the lake where Zapdos is."
Cynthia explained.
Haruto raised an eyebrow.
"You kept mentioning Electric-type Pokémon helping Zapdos recover. Is it related to that so-called 'converter'?"
"You'll understand once we get there."
Cynthia didn't elaborate further.
The four people and Garchomp continued walking quietly.
About fifteen minutes later, the view suddenly opened up.
A crystal-clear lake appeared before them.
"A lake on top of a mountain it looks a lot like Kanto's Caldera Lake."
Brock couldn't help but sigh in admiration.
However, the beautiful scenery failed to completely capture their attention.
At the center of the lake was a small glowing area.
Floating there with its eyes closed was a bird Pokémon covered in yellow feathers.
Black ring-shaped feathers surrounded its eyes, and it possessed a long orange beak.
Its wings and tail were lined with numerous sharp, spike-like feathers, while black feathers decorated the backs of its wings and the insides of its tail feathers.
A large cluster of sharp feathers atop its head stood out prominently.
Arcs of electricity continuously crackled around its body.
Surrounding it were many Electric-type Pokémon soaking in the lake.
Their expressions were all remarkably comfortable.
"If you have any Electric-type Pokémon, you can let them out too. The water here is incredibly beneficial for them."
Cynthia smiled.
"Come out, Electivire and Luxray."
"Come out, Ampharos."
Silas and Haruto immediately released their Pokémon.
The three Pokémon quickly submerged themselves in the lake.
Just like the others, arcs of electricity danced around their bodies, and their expressions became incredibly relaxed.
Brock took out a notebook and began recording observations.
"Fascinating is it because of the area in the center? It seems like these Electric-type Pokémon and Zapdos are exchanging electrical energy. They're both benefiting from one another."
...
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