Tyranitar.
The guardian deity of Kanto, a master of the earth's power—a Pokémon at the absolute peak of Champion level!
Watching Tyranitar lay down gravity-field training for Pikachu, Silas ran through Tyranitar's info in his head, his eyes flickering with indecision. In his heart, he was weighing whether or not to upgrade Tyranitar's power.
Right now, Silas had just five Pokémon on his active roster: Dragonite, Charizard, Gastly, Tyranitar, and Pikachu!
Dragonite, Charizard, and Gastly were already at Legendary Pokémon level—no way they'd improve much more in the short term, not to mention he didn't have nearly enough top-grade Elemental Crystals to feed those three monsters.
As for Pikachu, there was no point in hoping for miracles. Pikachu simply hadn't been training long enough. Even if he pumped mountains of Elemental Crystals into it, the gains would be marginal—definitely not enough to shift the power scales for Silas.
That only left Tyranitar. Tyranitar was already at the absolute peak of Champion level—give him a single Rock Crystal, and he'd break through to Legendary Pokémon level, giving Silas's team a massive boost.
But here was the problem—even though Tyranitar belonged to him, Silas wasn't sure just who Tyranitar was really loyal to: him, or the League. If Tyranitar was loyal to him, great; but if his loyalty lay with the League? Silas might lose big if he made Tyranitar stronger.
He'd never turn rogue against the League—but would the League really allow another wild Legendary Pokémon to walk around?
Forget it.
Might as well gamble!
After a long internal debate, Silas grit his teeth and pulled up the system panel.
Host: Silas Oak
Gender: Male
Age: 10
Height: 1.65m
Pokémon on hand: Charizard, Pikachu, Tyranitar, Dragonite, Gastly
Owned Fragments: Pidgeotto (354), Caterpie (1257), Spearow (586)…
Owned Crystals: Low-grade Fire Crystal (1765), Low-grade Electric Crystal (1285), Low-grade Rock Crystal (625), Low-grade Ghost Crystal (525), Low-grade Dragon Crystal (345), Top-grade Fire Crystal (1), Top-grade Ghost Crystal (1)
Owned Gold: 165,324
Lottery Chances: 0
Owned Gift Packs: 0
That Top-grade Fire Crystal was a reward from defeating Dragonite—what Silas hadn't expected at all was that just catching Gastly (not defeating it) also netted him a Top-grade Ghost Crystal. After asking the system, he learned that as long as a Legendary Pokémon-level opponent was captured, regardless of the method, the system would grant the reward for the capture.
Staring at the data, Silas quickly tried to figure out how to obtain one last Top-grade Crystal. He came up with two possible plans:
First: Lottery! He could gamble his 160K+ gold on a lottery and pray for a Top-grade Crystal. Just, this plan was dead on arrival—Silas didn't believe in luck, and with his luck, he'd just flush all that gold away. He needed those funds for future Legendary Pokémon.
Second: Fight! Take his three Legendary Pokémon-level monsters and challenge a Kanto guardian deity. If he beat just one, he'd get a Top-grade Crystal instantly. Trouble was, by now, all the families with deities knew about his team's power—none of them would be dumb enough to accept his challenge!
He thought it over endlessly, but the reality was that—at least for now—he just couldn't secure a third Top-grade Crystal.
Just as he was about to give up on boosting Tyranitar, his phone suddenly rang.
He picked it up—and the caller ID flashed: Professor Oak.
Immediately, Silas felt a jolt of anxiety, answering the call with uneasy respect: "Grandpa?"
"Where are you?" Professor Oak's voice was rushed, tense. "Are you still in Saffron City?"
"No," Silas replied instantly. "I already left Saffron City."
"You're out?" Professor Oak's voice spiked in urgency.
The shift in tone made Silas nervous. He started to explain, "Grandpa, about what happened with Sabrina, it was really just an accident—I didn't mea—"
"Sabrina? Oh!" Professor Oak sounded surprised, then quickly caught on. "You mean that little lady from the Blackthorn family? That's already taken care of. Old man Valerius agrees with me—petty fights between kids, you settle them yourselves. We're not getting involved, and it won't impact our family relations."
"Thank goodness!" Silas breathed a huge sigh of relief, then asked, "So, why the emergency? Did something big happen?"
"It's serious!" Professor Oak's tone went dead serious, making Silas tense up again, listening as Oak hurriedly explained: "Acapulco's in trouble. For some reason, a Tentacruel dozens of meters tall is leading a swarm out of the ocean and attacking the city. They're about half an hour out. If Tentacruel makes landfall, it'll be a disaster. Can you get there in time?"
A giant Tentacruel?!!
Oak's words immediately triggered memories of the anime—Silas remembered that the mutated Tentacruel was created when Team Rocket dumped chemical waste into the sea. The timeline felt off, and besides, there were tons of Elite Four Trainers in Acapulco; how could they not handle a mere Tentacruel?
"Grandpa," Silas voiced his doubts, "What about Acapulco's Elite Four Trainers?"
"No good!" Oak's response was filled with frustration. "All their top trainers have tried. No one's been able to put this thing down. Even though Tentacruel hasn't awakened its elemental powers, I suspect its physical strength alone is at Champion tier!"
Champion tier?!
Silas's eyes lit up like Christmas. This was just the lucky break he needed!
He immediately replied, "I'll hop on Dragonite and fly over right now!"
Acapulco.
It took Silas about thirty minutes to reach Acapulco by Dragonite.
As soon as he arrived, he spotted a Tentacruel, easily fifty to sixty meters tall, launching its attack.
Huge surges of seawater, directed by Tentacruel, hammered the city. Acapulco's defenses tried and failed to fight back—nothing even scratched Tentacruel, let alone slowed it down.
"What now?" Dragonite looked down at the carnage below, coolly asking Silas, "Should we intervene?"
"No rush," Silas replied, eyes unmoved by the chaos. "Let's hang back and see how things go. Let Tentacruel work out some anger first. We'll make a move in a bit."
"Fine by me." Dragonite had no objection to Silas's call. Despite Dragonite's basically good heart, it had lived far too long and witnessed too much tragedy in this world to remain naïve.
As for Silas—he felt zero sympathy for Acapulco. If his memory was right, this Tentacruel was driven to attack because its home was threatened and its environment poisoned. In other words, Acapulco was suffering the consequences of its own actions.
Sure, Silas promised Grandpa Oak he'd help. But he also wanted Acapulco to learn a lesson—sometimes, only real pain can teach people what lines never to cross. If he jumped in right away, next time Acapulco cops would just wait for another rescue. Get burned once, though, and maybe they'd think twice.
So, Silas and Dragonite just hovered above, observing.
Soon, the ocean's level began to rise!
Water gradually covered the land—or maybe, Acapulco itself was just sinking!
All across the city, panic spread; people scrambled to climb higher, desperate to avoid being swept away.
The city's authorities and trainers rallied to fight back, but before the monstrous Tentacruel, all their efforts seemed like a joke—utterly useless!
Eventually, Acapulco's resistance faltered, then stopped completely.
Have they given up already?!
Watching from above as Acapulco fell still, leaving the Tentacruel free to rampage, Silas figured it was a good time to step in. Just as he was about to make a move, his phone rang again!
This time it was an unknown number. Silas answered: "Hello?"
"Hello!" came a woman's urgent voice, "This is Acapulco's Officer Jenny. Honored top Trainer, have you arrived yet?"
Officer Jenny?!
Images flashed in Silas's mind of the last time she'd led a team to chase him down, and he couldn't help but smirk: "I'm in the sky."
"In the sky?" Jenny's voice was a mix of doubt, then hope: "You've arrived?"
"Yup," Silas replied amicably. "Right above you."
Above…?
Hearing that, Officer Jenny instinctively looked up. Blue sky was all she saw—until she noticed a black speck appearing, growing steadily larger. Then her jaw dropped, as Silas on Dragonite landed right in front of her!
"Hey there." Silas hopped off Dragonite with a casual wave.
"How is it you?!" Jenny gaped, stunned. She'd never have guessed that the 'top Trainer' sent by the League would be Silas.
"And why not me?" Silas gave her a lazy grin. "You don't think I'm qualified?"
"Not even close!" Officer Jenny retorted, unimpressed. "So what if you're Elite Four level? That's not nearly enough! You need to be at least Champion-tier to stand a chance!"
"Champion-tier, huh?" Silas gave a crooked smile, then turned to Dragonite: "Dragonite, say hello to Tentacruel."
"Rooooar~"
Dragonite unleashed a golden beam from its mouth—a Hyper Beam of overwhelming power lanced across the sky, slamming into the gigantic Tentacruel in an explosion so huge it left Jenny stupefied. The Tentacruel reeled back several meters, roaring in pain—clearly, that hit actually hurt!
"Any objections now?" Silas turned, still grinning, as Officer Jenny stared at him in shock.
"N-no... No objections," Jenny gulped, about to say something else—only for Silas to cut her off with another bombshell: "Great! Since I'm not qualified, I'll take my leave. Wouldn't want to get in the way."
"Wait!" Jenny panicked as Dragonite prepared to take off with Silas—after all, she was out of options, and Silas was her only hope now! No matter how little she liked him, she needed him now. She hastily bowed her head and said humbly, "That was my mistake. I shouldn't have doubted you. Please—I apologize!"