Magma, exceeding a thousand degrees Celsius, spilled from the volcanic crater, flowing down the ridges and valleys before cooling into pitch-black obsidian.
The ground temperature soared to seven or eight hundred degrees—hot enough to char human flesh to cinders in seconds. Near the crater itself, temperatures surpassed a thousand degrees. The sky was perpetually shrouded in dark smoke and fiery light. This was Kanto's largest volcanic region—a place utterly uninhabitable for humans.
Blaine's research lab was buried deep beneath this volcanic wasteland. As a world-renowned geneticist, he had connections with many scientists. With the help of a geologist, he had identified a pocket beneath the earth where magma never flowed—a space with stable, survivable temperatures. There, he had built his secret facility.
The extreme environment made it nearly impossible for Team Rocket to locate Blaine's hideout without precise coordinates, allowing him to evade capture since his betrayal.
But now, his sanctuary had been discovered.
The one who found it?
None other than Kanto's legendary Moltres—a Mythical Pokémon whispered about in tales for generations.
While deities like Articuno, Zapdos were dubbed "Legendary," Pokémon like Moltres—unique in the world, lacking divine authority yet surpassing ordinary Pokémon in power—were called "Mythical."
In rarity, they matched Legendaries, with human sightings vanishingly scarce. The only difference lay in divine authority, not scarcity.
Of course, some Legendaries wielded powers unrelated to combat, meaning even Mythicals like Moltres could surpass certain Legendaries in raw strength.
Moltres had long been rumored to reside in Indigo Plateau, where most sightings occurred. Yet some researchers disputed this, arguing it must live in volcanic regions like Cinnabar Island.
Indigo Plateau was vast—comparable to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau—far beyond humanity's capacity to fully explore. Thus, Moltres' true habitat remained unconfirmed.
Until now.
Team Rocket had tracked Moltres to Indigo Plateau. Under Sabrina's command, Rocket elites mobilized, leveraging both her unparalleled psychic prowess and ancient technology from a lost civilization to temporarily subdue the firebird.
The key to controlling Moltres?
The original Gym Badges of Kanto's leaders.
Historical records spoke of multiple ancient civilizations, each wiped out by coordinated assaults from Legendary and Mythical Pokémon. These records passed down through generations, warning humanity against repeating the same mistakes.
Yet every civilization, upon reaching a certain technological threshold, sought to defy fate—researching ways to control these deities.
Modern scholars theorized that precisely because ancient humans attempted to enslave gods, they were erased by divine retribution.
But their research succeeded in some aspects—enough to provoke annihilation.
Now, fragments of these lost technologies lay buried in ruins. If each civilization had passed down its findings, humanity might have conquered Pokémon entirely by now.
Kanto's eight original Gym Badges were excavated from such ruins. Their materials defied analysis, leaving the League no choice but to repurpose them as symbols of authority.
Team Rocket, however, took a darker approach. Through brutal experimentation, they uncovered the badges' true purpose—
Controlling Legendary and Mythical Pokémon.
Beings like Moltres possessed intelligence too high for conventional capture. The badges bypassed this—forcing obedience after defeat.
Though the control was temporary, repeated recaptures could break Moltres' will, binding it permanently.
After capturing Moltres at Indigo Plateau, Giovanni immediately dispatched Sabrina to Cinnabar to hunt Blaine.
As a firebird, Moltres thrived in Cinnabar's inferno. Sabrina commanded it to dive into magma, scouring underground rivers until it pinpointed Blaine's lab.
The divine bird's cry split the sky. Endless flames blotted out the heavens as its four-to-five-meter wingspan cast a terrifying shadow. Wherever it flew, fire erupted—burning air, solid, or liquid alike without fuel.
The volcanic heat was lethal to humans, yet Sabrina, shielded by Moltres' flames, felt only warmth.
In her hand, a badge glowed as she directed Moltres against Blaine's Charizard. The two firebirds clashed like fighter jets, locked in an aerial duel that had raged for hours.
Sabrina knew this Charizard was Blaine's strongest. Even with Moltres, she couldn't quickly overpower him.
As Blaine boasted, he was the Fire-type master. He had studied Moltres extensively, while Sabrina—an outsider to fire—relied solely on raw power.
Frustration gnawed at her. As a psychic specialist, controlling Moltres felt unnatural. Had she been given Mewtwo or Mew, Blaine would've fallen long ago.
Yet Blaine wasn't faring much better. Mythicals like Moltres defied logic. While ordinary Fire-types exhausted energy using flames, Moltres breathed fire as effortlessly as air.
Its body, woven from flame itself, granted near-infinite reserves. Only large-scale attacks drained its stamina. Otherwise, it could burn the world to ash.
Meanwhile, Mitsuru arrived on Cinnabar's shores.
Watching the battle above, he saw Blaine faltering—but before he could intervene, Green collapsed against him, paralyzed with terror.
To be continued…
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