With everything prepared and the mission finally able to move forward smoothly, Jessie couldn't help but breathe a small sigh of relief.
But the moment her eyes landed on Cassidy's smug, self-satisfied smile, her teeth started itching with rage again.
"Then what about the follow-up plan?" James asked curiously.
"After sending the Pokémon over, Cassidy, what exactly are you planning to do to make that brat leave Pallet Town on his own?"
"We placed an order to help Drowzee learn Teleport," Cassidy said, blinking playfully.
"Drowzee?!"
"You mean…" Jessie's eyes widened.
"First, have Drowzee quietly put the brat to sleep without him noticing—then give him a command to leave Pallet Town on his own—and finally use Teleport to bring him back here?"
"Bingo~ Correct!" Cassidy snapped her fingers proudly.
"That's the flawless, airtight plan Butch and I came up with."
"Jessie, James, Meowth—what do you think?"
Cassidy raised an eyebrow, chin slightly lifted as she looked down at them.
Jessie: "Hmph… it's… passable, I guess."
Meowth: "Mm-hmm, yeah. It is pretty ingenious. I'd say the success rate is quite high."
"Cassidy, Botch—you've really outdone yourselves," James said, finally showing a confident smile, as if a heavy burden had been lifted.
"I really think this time, we'll be able to complete the mission Boss Giovanni assigned to us."
"Damn it!" Butch exploded again.
"How many times do I have to say it?! My name is Butch, not Botch!!"
"Enough!" Jessie snapped.
"Don't argue over nonsense like this."
"No matter what grudges or personal issues we have off-mission, since we're partners on this operation—everything comes second to the mission."
"Of course," she added, straightening up,
"for Boss Giovanni—"
"For Boss Giovanni!"
"For Boss Giovanni!"
"For Boss Giovanni!!"
As expected of Team Rocket's elite combat units, they weren't some disorganized rabble.
Once the plan was finalized, execution began swiftly and efficiently.
At this very moment, far away in Pallet Town, Ash had no idea that darkness was converging—and that danger was rapidly closing in on him.
…
After studying and reading for a while, Ash took out a notebook and began refining the training plans for Pichu, Frogadier, and Pidgey, based on the latest insights he had gained.
At present, Frogadier had already evolved into its second stage, and its overall strength level was the highest among Ash's Pokémon.
Earlier that morning, after the Pidgey capture battle, Frogadier's level had increased from LV.26 to LV.27.
Without a doubt, Frogadier was now Ash's primary combat force, and Ash was investing the most time and effort into it.
Frogadier's training was divided into 3 major parts:
First: Physical conditioning—stamina, attack power, defense, and other foundational attributes.
Second: Construction and refinement of its skill framework.
Third: Development of its hidden passive ability.
The first and second stages were already progressing steadily.
What Ash was focusing on now was the third stage—developing Frogadier's hidden ability.
Unlike its first Ability, Torrent, which activates automatically once Frogadier's stamina drops below a certain threshold, Frogadier's hidden Ability—Protean—could be activated at will, offering enormous tactical flexibility.
Although Frogadier was currently a pure Water-type Pokémon—and even after evolving into Greninja, it would only gain the Dark type—
its hidden Ability Protean allowed it to change its own typing to match the attribute of the move it used.
This meant that when Frogadier couldn't avoid taking an opponent's attack, it could deliberately use a move of a corresponding type to reduce damage—or even negate it entirely.
Likewise, when attacking, Frogadier could use Protean to change its typing before striking, thereby gaining Same-Type Attack Bonus (STAB).
STAB Explanation:
When a Pokémon uses a move that matches its own type, the move's power is increased—usually by ×1.1 to ×1.5.
Frogadier typically evolved into Greninja at around LV.36.
Now that it had already reached LV.27, it was clearly entering the critical stage of preparation for its final evolution.
That made developing Protean not just useful—but essential.
At the moment, Frogadier didn't need high-power multi-attribute moves to deal damage.
Its Water-type attacks were more than sufficient for offense.
What Ash needed to do was help Frogadier learn as many low-power moves of different types as possible.
Since the goal was to activate and exploit Protean, Ash specifically targeted:
Low-power attacking movesSupport movesStatus and transformation-type moves
For example, Frogadier's current move pool:
Pound and Growl → switch typing to NormalLick → switch typing to Ghost
If Frogadier needed to tank Rock- or Steel-type attacks, it could instantly use Growl, changing its typing to Normal and halving the damage taken.
If it were hit by a Ghost-type attack while in Normal form—
that damage would be completely nullified.
And if the opponent countered with a Fighting-type move against its Normal typing, Frogadier could instantly use Lick, switching to Ghost type and becoming immune to Fighting-type attacks.
In the original games, Pokémon were limited to four move slots, and battles were turn-based—
which meant Protean could never truly show its full potential.
But in reality, as long as a Pokémon had enough stamina, it could learn, remember, and master many moves.
With precise timing and sufficient speed, it was even possible to chain multiple moves together—
locking an opponent into a deadly combo until they collapsed.
In the real world, Protean's true power finally revealed itself—
living up perfectly to its name: ever-changing, endlessly adaptable.
And with the help of Ash's Ascension Trainer System, learning new moves was far easier than normal.
That was why Ash had officially begun planning Frogadier's future move pool—
aiming to help it master as many attribute-based moves as possible.
"Looking purely from Frogadier's base typing and damage intake perspective…"
"Against Normal, Fighting, Flying, Poison, Bug, Ground, Rock, Ghost, Psychic, Dragon, Dark, and Fairy—that's thirteen types—it takes ×1 normal damage."
"Against Water, Fire, Steel, and Ice, damage is reduced."
"But when facing Grass and Electric, damage is doubled."
"So if we want to reduce damage intake through Protean…"
"Grass and Electric must be addressed first."
"To counter Grass-type attacks while still dealing damage, Frogadier can learn Bug-, Poison-, Grass-, or Flying-type moves."
"As for Electric-type attacks…"
"Grass-type moves reduce damage, but Ground-type moves grant complete immunity."
"So the top priority should be Ground-type skills."
Ash's eyes shone as he wrote rapidly in his notebook.
The framework of Frogadier's future had begun to take shape.
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