Pokémon: Raising Abandoned Pokémon into Legends

Chapter 302: Infiltrating the Hunter Organization Headquarters (Two-in-One)

Rio picked up his phone and continued tracking the location. He noticed the dot seemed to have stopped moving. Shortly after, Gengar’s call came in.

"Gengar~"

"Old Ghost says Hunter J has returned to headquarters." Mewtwo translated promptly.

"Old Ghost, what does their headquarters look like?" Rio asked.

"Gengar~"

"Old Ghost says it’s nestled among a group of mountains. When Hunter J’s ship flew between them, the mountain face opened up automatically."

"Got it. We’re on our way, Old Ghost." Rio nodded, hung up, and urged Charizard to speed up.

About ten minutes later, Rio spotted the mountain range Gengar had described. He recalled Charizard into its Poké Ball and had Mewtwo carry him forward through the forest.

"Champion, the hunter headquarters has all kinds of advanced technology and powerful Pokémon—even legendary ones. Are you really going to storm in alone?" The hunter Rio had brought along was visibly nervous and afraid. He didn’t believe a single Champion could take on the entire Pokémon Hunter Organization. And if the organization found out he had betrayed them, not only would he be finished—his family would be targeted too, unless the headquarters was completely wiped out.

"What, still don’t have faith in me?" Rio raised an eyebrow at the hunter’s fearful expression.

"It’s not that I don’t have faith in you—it’s just that the headquarters really does have too many powerful Pokémon." The hunter said nervously. "If you’re set on wiping them out, you should bring more backup."

"Just give me a quick rundown of the powerful ones." Rio shrugged and kept moving forward.

"Although I’ve never seen them myself, I’ve heard rumors around headquarters that they have the legendary Darkrai, a Galarian Articuno, and a Kanto Moltres." The hunter thought for a moment. "I don’t know if there are any others."

Rio raised an eyebrow at that. That was impressive—three legendary Pokémon. No wonder they had the capability to capture the Lake Guardians and Regigigas.

But...

"Even so, I can handle what you just mentioned." Rio smiled.

Just then, the tracking on his phone showed that Gengar was moving slowly directly beneath him.

"Mewtwo, try to establish a mental link with Gengar—share its visual feed with us."

Rio didn’t plan to storm in just yet.

Mewtwo received the command, stood still, and closed its eyes, placing one hand on Rio’s shoulder. Before long, Gengar’s perspective began appearing in Rio’s mind.

It was a bit awkward. Whether intentional or not, the first image that appeared was a backside. J’s backside.

"You really are a pervert, Old Ghost." Rio couldn’t help but complain silently. He had told Gengar to shadow J, and it was staring at that spot the whole time?

"Don’t slander me! I’m hiding in her shadow—the only thing I can look up at is the underside of her skirt!" Gengar’s voice rang out. With the mental link active, Rio and Gengar could communicate directly.

"Fine, I believe you. But can you move your head a little? Let me see a different angle." Rio said, his mouth twitching. He still remembered how Gengar had been peeping at Aria when they caught Raikou.

Two seconds later, Gengar shifted its view, and Rio finally got a clear look at the Pokémon Hunter Organization’s headquarters.

Hunter J was walking alone down a corridor. Many hunters she passed addressed her respectfully as "J-sama." Along the way, Rio saw numerous Pokémon kept in glass enclosures—Milotic, the so-called most beautiful Pokémon; Zoroark, the phantom master; Gholdengo from Paldea, gleaming gold; and a shiny Absol, the disaster Pokémon. There were also two evolutions of Charcadet unique to Paldea: Armarouge and Ceruledge.

All of them were rare Pokémon from various regions. Rio was amazed. The Pokémon Hunter Organization truly deserved its reputation as a global organization—Team Rocket didn’t even have this many rare Pokémon. When it came to the business of selling wild Pokémon, Team Rocket was clearly outmatched.

Well... no, actually, Team Rocket probably sold more in terms of quantity—they won by volume. In terms of quality, the Hunter Organization took the lead, since they operated on a commission basis: as long as you paid, they’d catch whatever you wanted, whether it belonged to someone or not.

Eventually, Rio’s attention was drawn to four impressive enclosures.

The first held only one Pokémon: a Galarian Articuno, perched proudly on a tree branch like it was striking a pose. Unfortunately, through the shared mental link, Rio couldn’t see its level, so he couldn’t tell if it was a divine protector or just a regular member of its species.

The second enclosure held a Moltres. Unlike the Galarian Articuno, it wasn’t posing—it was furiously breathing fire inside its glass room. Rio couldn’t see its level either, but his intuition told him this wasn’t the same divine Moltres he had encountered at Mt. Ember.

The third enclosure held Regirock, sitting alone on the ground in a daze. The hunters must have excavated some ruins and captured it. Though Rio couldn’t see its level, he guessed this Regirock was about as strong as his own—after all, the three Regi were just mass-produced dolls Regigigas made when bored. There was no concept of "divine status" among them; they could be found in ruins across all regions, and their power levels were roughly similar.

The fourth enclosure held a magnificent legendary Pokémon—Darkrai. It had been sitting on the ground, but the moment it saw Hunter J pass by, it charged at the glass in rage, forming a Shadow Ball in its hand. However, the enclosure seemed specifically designed to contain it—the Shadow Ball didn’t leave a single mark on the glass.

Hunter J sneered at it.

"Darkrai, just stay put. Pray that some rich buyer comes along and takes you away. And then pray that they can’t control you, giving you a chance to escape—so you can come back and get your revenge on me."

With that, Hunter J strode triumphantly through a large door, leaving Darkrai to rage impotently in its cage.

But Darkrai paused mid-rampage—it noticed Gengar lurking in Hunter J’s shadow. Gengar also froze, but not because it was staring at Darkrai—Rio had called out to it.

Rio had noticed a sign on Darkrai’s enclosure listing a price of 3 billion League dollars. He asked Gengar to check the previous three enclosures to see if they also had price tags. As he suspected, they did.

The Galarian Articuno was priced at 2 billion. Moltres was priced at 1 billion. Regirock was priced at 2.5 billion. All less than Darkrai’s 3 billion.

That confirmed that Moltres was just a regular member without divine status. The Galarian Articuno was harder to judge, but he suspected it had divine status—he remembered Raikou had been priced around 2 billion as well. As for Darkrai, given its 3 billion price tag, Rio guessed it probably had divine status too.

After noting these observations, Rio had Gengar continue following Hunter J.

Once Gengar slipped through the door Hunter J had entered, Rio saw a large hall filled with people working. He didn’t spot Hunter J immediately, but his attention was drawn to a massive screen displaying various mission assignments.

At the very top, highlighted in red, was a mission: "Capture Regigigas — Price Negotiable."

Below that was a mission to capture the Mythical Pokémon Diancie — also negotiable.

Third was a mission to capture Urshifu from the Galar region — 1 billion for a regular one, 2.5 billion for Mustard, the former Champion of Galar.

Fourth was a mission to capture six Dragon-type Pokémon: Dragonite, Goodra, Salamence, Garchomp, Kommo-o, and Hydreigon, all requiring Elite Four-tier talent — 1 billion.

There were many more, all ranked from highest to lowest price, covering locations all over the world. Rio was thoroughly impressed.

Another screen displayed unclaimed missions—either because the price was too low or the difficulty too high. Rio had Gengar take a closer look. The top one was: "Capture Arceus — 100 billion."

WHY? Arceus? You want to capture Arceus? Rio was stunned—he even asked Gengar to double-check. Only after confirming the 100 billion price tag did he snap back to reality. He seriously suspected this mission was posted by the organization itself, to motivate themselves to become strong enough to one day capture Arceus.

The second mission was "Capture Eternatus — 90 billion." Third were the three Sinnoh creation legends: Giratina, Palkia, and Dialga, each priced at 10 billion—but no one had accepted them. Clearly, the organization knew they weren’t capable yet.

Lower down were more Mythical Pokémon missions, but the prices were too low for the hunters to accept, so they just sat there, waiting for the clients to raise their offers. For example, one of the Tao Trio, Kyurem, was only priced at 2 billion—if Kyurem found out, Rio felt it would fly out and kill the client itself.

After taking all that in, Rio directed Gengar to find Hunter J again. Soon, Gengar spotted her speaking with a bearded middle-aged man—he was called "K." The boss of the entire Hunter Organization.

Their conversation was about Regigigas. Hunter J told K to get the client to raise the price and to provide more tech weapons and battle-ready Pokémon groups—otherwise, she wouldn’t take the mission.

Hunter K responded that the client had already located Regigigas’s resting place, so Hunter J didn’t need to search or decode tablets—just bring enough firepower to capture it. Therefore, the price should be lower.

Hunter J considered this, but still insisted on at least 7 billion—or she wouldn’t take it. Hunter K fell silent and walked away. About fifteen minutes later, he returned with the client’s answer: they agreed to 7 billion, with a 1 billion advance payment.

Hunter J’s face lit up with joy. She turned and left to prepare for the mission. But before she left, she brought up Rio.

"There’s definitely a mole inside our organization working for that Champion—how else would he have shown up at my transaction site? I’ve already caught two, but my gut tells me there are more."

"Since pressuring him through the Sinnoh League didn’t work, Boss K, you need to prepare for him to come knocking. His talk about wiping us out wasn’t just empty words."

"I know." Hunter K crossed his arms, radiating confidence. "Since political pressure won’t drive him away, we’ll fight him. He’s been Champion for less than a year—I’ll teach him not to be so arrogant and overconfident. Our organization has dominated this world not just through our connections, but through our own strength."

Seeing her boss so confident, Hunter J said no more and left to prepare for her Regigigas capture mission.

Time passed. A day later.

Hunter J, fully resupplied with her subordinate squads and a fresh battle-ready Pokémon force, departed in her ship.

Rio watched the ship leave. He waited an hour in the mountains.

Then, he struck.

He struck against the Pokémon Hunter Organization below his feet.

Mewtwo launched three Aura Spheres, shaking the entire mountain and terrifying the hunters inside.

"Impressive nerve—he actually came to attack our organization!"

Through the large screen, Hunter K saw it was Mewtwo and immediately understood—Rio had come to fulfill his promise to destroy their headquarters.

"Bring down that Mewtwo with Hyper Beam!"

Hunter K issued commands from within the base. Before long, the entire mountain trembled as tech weapons emerged from the mountain face, aiming at Mewtwo. A terrible energy gathered in the cannons—and two seconds later, they fired.

Mewtwo watched calmly, its body glowing with evolution light.