Pokémon: Raising Abandoned Pokémon into Legends

Chapter 300: The Startled Hunter J (Two-in-One)

"Kanto League Champion, Rio!" Hunter J frowned.

"You know me?" Rio was somewhat surprised.

"Your performance at the Sinnoh Conference, humiliating the Sinnoh League for days, was quite the talking point even at our hunter headquarters."

Hunter J’s tone carried a hint of mockery. "But what is a Kanto League Champion doing here in Sinnoh? And showing up at this place? You’re not here just to stop this transaction of mine, are you?"

"Stop this transaction?" Rio smiled. "You could think a little bigger than that."

Hunter J’s eyes narrowed.

"You want to wipe out our hunter organization?"

"A few days ago, I heard a rumor that the Kanto League Champion wanted to join forces with the Sinnoh League to eliminate the hunter organization. At first, I thought it was just fake news—but now it seems it wasn’t so fake after all."

Hearing that, Rio’s eyes narrowed in turn.

The implication was clear—the Sinnoh League had leaked information.

"Kanto League Champion, I’m actually curious—has our hunter organization ever offended you? To the point where you’d ignore the Sinnoh League’s refusal and illegally set foot in Sinnoh just to fight us?"

"Hold on—let me correct you. I’m not here illegally. I came as a tourist and happened to witness a transaction between the hunter organization and a Sinnoh League official. Then I was invited by the Lily of the Valley Conference Champion to assist her in eliminating the Pokémon Hunter Organization." Rio explained with a smile.

Hunter J’s brow furrowed deeply. She suddenly felt that this Champion was utterly shameless—spouting such hypocritical nonsense.

"Stop wasting time—take her down!" Cynthia’s voice rang out.

"Got it!" Rio responded like a henpecked husband, then turned serious and called out to Gengar: "Gengar, take her down!"

"Kehehehe!" Gengar cackled as it extended its poisonous tongue, ready to lick Hunter J and paralyze her.

But at that very moment, a beam of light shot from Hunter J’s hand. Gengar, which had been sticking out its tongue to lick her, was rapidly petrified before their eyes.

"Stop them!" Hunter J strode quickly past Gengar, shouting to her subordinates.

Immediately, dozens of Skarmory and Metang flew out from the ship in rapid succession. There had to be at least a hundred of them. They moved like an orderly army, unleashing hundreds of moves simultaneously—Air Slash from the Skarmory and Flash Cannon from the Metang.

"Mewtwo, you’re up." Rio said with a frown.

Behind him, Mewtwo’s body glowed, and in an instant, a powerful psychic wave erupted from within it, forming a visible psychic barrier. The barrier easily blocked the attacks from the Skarmory and Metang.

"How is that possible?!"

Hunter J, who had just ducked into the ship’s cockpit, nearly had her eyes pop out from behind her sunglasses. She couldn’t believe that over a hundred Pokémon attacking simultaneously had been effortlessly blocked by a single unknown Pokémon using nothing but psychic power.

This was something she had never encountered before. Psychic power—just psychic power—stopping the moves of over a hundred Pokémon? WHY?!

Then something even more shocking happened.

Mewtwo swept its gaze across the Skarmory flying in the air. Instantly, the Skarmory were enveloped in psychic force and slammed uncontrollably into the ground, knocked out instantly.

"Run! Get us out of here! Have the remaining Metang hold it off!" A wave of intense danger washed over Hunter J. She shouted frantically.

One psychic wave had taken down dozens of Skarmory—even their organization’s leader, Hunter K’s Pokémon, couldn’t do that. It was terrifying. Even if she were to fight it, she would need technological weapons specifically designed to counter Psychic-type moves.

A loud hum filled the air. Two seconds after Hunter J’s command, her ship fired an energy burst and launched off the ground. At fifty meters high, the ship suddenly turned invisible—completely disappearing from sight, as if it had vanished into thin air.

The remaining Metang charged at Mewtwo, but were effortlessly taken down.

On the other side, Cynthia’s battle against the League official was nearing its end—until the official suddenly released a level 60 Aggron, putting Garchomp under sudden pressure.

Seeing this, Rio wanted to help, but Cynthia stopped him.

"Don’t help—I’ve got this!" She glared at him, then revealed a ring on her right hand. The ring glowed, and Garchomp underwent Mega Evolution, its level jumping from 62 to 72. It continued fighting against the official and his subordinates.

After Mega Evolving, Garchomp quickly regained the upper hand, defeating the Aggron before long, and turning the League official and his men into prisoners.

"Damn it—I couldn’t stop them!" Cynthia looked at the direction Hunter J’s ship had fled, frustrated.

"I let them go on purpose." Rio said calmly from beside her.

"On purpose? What do you mean?" Cynthia looked at him, confused.

"Simple—don’t you feel like something’s missing?" Rio smiled.

"Something’s missing?" Cynthia frowned, scanning Rio and his surroundings.

After a moment, she suddenly realized something was off.

"Where’s Gengar?" She noticed that Gengar, which had been petrified by Hunter J’s石化枪, had disappeared sometime earlier.

"Guess?" Rio raised an eyebrow.

Gengar’s petrification had been deliberately orchestrated through Mewtwo. He knew that if Gengar was hiding in Hunter J’s shadow, she would aim her Petrification Gun at it. But Gengar was a Ghost-type Pokémon—how effective could a Petrification Gun, modified from the Normal-type move Disable, really be against it?

"Are you saying... it snuck onto Hunter J’s ship?" Cynthia guessed.

"Exactly." Rio smiled. "It has a tracker on it. We’ll let it lead us to their headquarters."

He couldn’t very well tell her that the real reason was that after hearing Hunter J was going after Regigigas, he’d suddenly developed an interest in the legendary Pokémon. Even though he already had many legendary Pokémon, as a Pokémon enthusiast, who wouldn’t want to be a collector of legendary Pokémon? He didn’t necessarily have to command them—just having the title of their trainer would be satisfying enough.

Imagine introducing himself one day: I’m Rio, Kanto League Champion. My legendary Pokémon include Mewtwo, Giratina, Ho-Oh, Lugia, Kyogre, Groudon, Rayquaza, Kyurem... You get the idea.

On the other side, after hearing Rio’s explanation, Cynthia nodded in vague understanding. But she felt something was off. Just as she was about to press further, Rio interrupted her.

"What are you going to do with these people?"

"Send them to Sinnoh prison and let them face the League’s justice, of course." Cynthia said proudly.

"Then you’ll need to modify their memories."

"Why?"

Cynthia was confused, but then she understood. Rio was the Kanto League Champion. If the Sinnoh League found out he was operating in their territory, it could damage relations between the two regions—and jeopardize his next move.

"Fine. You handle the memory modification, and I’ll take care of sending them to prison and returning this Riolu." Cynthia picked up the petrified Riolu from its glass case, pressed a switch underneath, and the Riolu was released from its petrified state.

"You’re a Sinnoh official, and you dare lay a hand on me? I’m a Kanto League Champion! Do you want to ruin relations between our regions?!"

On the other side, the Sinnoh official, seeing Rio signal an unknown Pokémon to approach him, cried out in terror.

But his cries were useless. Moments later, he and his subordinates all slumped over, unconscious.

"Alright, they’re all yours now. I’ll go track Hunter J." Rio said to Cynthia.

Cynthia waved him off. "Go. Keep your comms open."

Rio gave an OK sign, then had Mewtwo take him away. He also brought along the Pokémon hunter he had brought all the way from Kanto.

"Contact your friend. Ask why they left by the time you got to the meeting point." Rio told the hunter.

Then he pulled out his communicator and opened the tracking function. A dot was moving at high speed.

Before long, the hunter finished his call and looked at Rio with a strange expression.

"My friend said they ran into the Kanto League Champion and the Sinnoh Lily of the Valley Conference Champion and almost got caught. But since the transaction was completed, they’re heading back to headquarters now. He told me to wait until he turns in the mission before meeting up."

"Headquarters." Rio’s eyes narrowed.

He had thought Hunter J would go straight after Regigigas. But on second thought, after losing so many Pokémon to him, it made sense that she would return to headquarters to resupply.

Dozens of miles away, high in the sky.

A large ship de-cloaked from its invisible state. Inside the cockpit, Hunter J was facing a large screen, on which a bearded middle-aged man appeared.

"J, are you saying that Kanto League Champion Rio and Sinnoh Lily of the Valley Conference Champion Cynthia just appeared at your transaction site?" The middle-aged man frowned.

"Yes. And he had the audacity to tell me he was going to wipe out our hunter organization."

Hunter J sneered. "Don’t you think he’s crazy? Doesn’t he know that our main clients are League officials and nobles from all regions? Wiping us out would mean making enemies of the entire world. I really don’t know what he’s thinking."

"Just because he became the Kanto League Champion, he thinks he can use his self-righteous justice to dictate everything? Ha! It’s laughable."

"Boss K, you need to contact the Sinnoh League and have them pressure the Kanto League to get this Champion to back off."

"I understand." The middle-aged man nodded, then raised an eyebrow. "But J, you’re reacting much more strongly than usual. That’s not like you. If it were a normal day, you wouldn’t sound so angry. Is he really that strong?"

Hunter J’s mocking expression froze.

"Yes, he’s pretty strong."

Hunter J said begrudgingly. "My hundred Skarmory and Metang were taken down by one Pokémon I’ve never seen before, using just a single Psychic move. Can you even imagine how powerful that is? I’ve captured the legendary Darkrai before, and even then I never encountered anything like this."

"A single Psychic move took down a hundred Skarmory and Metang?" Hunter K’s frown deepened. "What kind of Pokémon was it?"

"I don’t know. If I had to describe it, it looked like a hairless, humanoid cat. Actually... it looked a bit like the Mythical Pokémon Mew." Hunter J thought for a moment.

"You mean Mewtwo?" Hunter K lowered his head and searched, then pulled up a high-definition photo of Mewtwo.

"Mewtwo? You know it?"

"Of course. It’s a Pokémon developed by Team Rocket in Kanto using Mew’s genes. Its power is immense—stronger than most legendary Pokémon. Team Rocket’s boss spent years trying to control it, but failed every time."

Hunter K spoke confidently, clearly well-informed about Mewtwo. "At the Lily of the Valley Conference in Sinnoh, Rio sent out Mewtwo against the Psychic-type Elite Four Lucian. All six of Lucian’s Pokémon were defeated by Mewtwo with just a single move."

"What?! All six of Lucian’s Pokémon, defeated with one move?" Hunter J’s pupils shrank behind her sunglasses. She hadn’t watched much of that conference—she’d been on a mission at the time, and had only caught one match: Rio versus Fire-type Elite Four Flint.

"Yes, that’s exactly right. So I’m genuinely curious how this Kanto League Champion managed to capture and tame such a powerful Pokémon. I heard even Giovanni couldn’t get it to obey him when he had it." Hunter K chuckled.

"Anyway, that’s enough for now. Come back quickly. I’ll forward this information to the Sinnoh League and have them pressure the Kanto League."

With that, Hunter K’s face disappeared from the screen.

Hunter J sat back in her seat, crossing her legs and muttering the name "Mewtwo" to herself.

What she didn’t notice was that in the shadow beneath her seat, a cute lavender-colored fatty was glaring at her with slight indignation.

Old Ghost was annoyed. Hunter J only remembered Mewtwo—she completely forgot about it. Its strength was greater than Mewtwo’s!

Well... no, that wasn’t quite right anymore. About half a month ago, yes. Now, they were about equal. Yes, equal.