Pokémon: Raising Abandoned Pokémon into Legends

Chapter 39: News of the Red Gyarados

"Whoa!"

"Are you kidding me? She just jumped straight down like that? Without even sending out a Flying-type Pokémon to catch her?"

Watching the figure leap off the cliff, Rio was stunned. Then he noticed that the figure’s descent speed seemed off—almost like it was floating down slowly.

"Charmeleon, Munchlax—let’s go." Rio abandoned his wild grinding plans and, driven by curiosity, headed toward the spot where the figure had landed.

About half an hour later, Rio pushed through a thicket and arrived at the landing point.

"Was that her who jumped down?" He hid behind a tree and saw a woman with flowing hair, dressed in a tight red bodysuit. Though he couldn’t make out her face clearly, his male intuition told him she was definitely stunning.

She stood quietly under a tree, gazing at the sky, with an Alakazam behind her.

"How did she do that? Did Alakazam use Psychic to lower her down? But when she jumped, I didn’t see an Alakazam following her." Rio was baffled.

Then his pupils contracted—he noticed that this Alakazam’s stats were extraordinary.

[Pokémon: Alakazam]

[Level: 52]

[Talent: Quasi-Elite Four]

[Ability: Inner Focus]

[Gender: Female]

[Moves: Confusion (82%), Teleport (80%), Disable (80%), Miracle Eye (79%), Recover (78%), Psybeam (79%), Reflect (78%), Psycho Cut (80%), Future Sight (78%), Psychic (75%), Trick (75%)]

"Isn’t this Alakazam ridiculously strong?" Rio swallowed hard at the stats.

"Who exactly is this woman? She has such a powerful Alakazam. Even Cynthia right now wouldn’t stand a chance against her."

Just then, a familiar face appeared in Rio’s view: the bald mid-level Rocket executive, Temu. He emerged from the forest, panting, followed by one Team Rocket member after another.

"So this beauty is part of Team Rocket?" Rio raised an eyebrow. He noticed Temu being extremely deferential toward her—clearly she outranked him.

"It looks like she’s a high-ranking Rocket executive, one who commands an Alakazam." Rio racked his brain for who fit that description.

A moment later, it clicked. "Could she be Sabrina—the Psychic-type Gym Leader of Saffron City?"

That answer instantly explained why she’d jumped off the cliff without a Pokémon. If he remembered correctly, in the original story, Sabrina had psychic powers powerful enough to rival Psychic-type Pokémon. She was practically a human Psychic-type. Leaping off a cliff was as easy for her as eating and drinking.

"But why isn’t she at her Gym in Saffron City? What’s she doing in Lavender Town?" Rio narrowed his eyes. "Is she leading this operation to steal the lockbox Mr. Fuji gave me? If so, this is going to be tricky."

On the other side, more and more Team Rocket members were emerging from the forest, and Rio’s brow furrowed deeper. Last time there had been three; this time, it looked like nearly a hundred.

They formed an orderly formation. Sabrina was giving them orders—she pulled about thirty people aside and assigned them to seal off all exits into Lavender Town. The rest would follow her into the town proper.

Watching this, Rio considered rushing back to warn everyone. But just as he was about to leave, he noticed one Rocket member secretly hanging back.

After a moment’s thought, Rio decided to follow him. When the man stopped to relieve himself, Rio ambushed him on his way back. He burst out from behind a tree, clamped his hand over the man’s mouth, and, with Charmeleon and Munchlax, dragged him into the woods.

A few minutes later, Rio emerged wearing a Team Rocket uniform.

"Fits pretty well," he chuckled, adjusting the outfit, then recalled Charmeleon and Munchlax into their Poké Balls.

Soon, Rio blended into the Rocket ranks, quietly and inconspicuously working his way to a spot not far from Sabrina, and marched with them toward Lavender Town.

Before long, the group of over fifty Rockets, led by Sabrina, entered Lavender Town openly through the main gate—though Sabrina wore a veil. Clearly, she didn’t want her identity as a Rocket-affiliated Gym Leader exposed.

Once inside, Sabrina randomly selected three people to serve her and sent the rest to take control of the town. Rio, being nearest, was one of the lucky three chosen to be her servant.

Sabrina took them to a restaurant and sat down. Soon, the bald Temu arrived, wearing what appeared to be a new pair of pants.

Rio kept his head down low as Temu walked in. Temu didn’t notice anything unusual and humbly asked Sabrina: "Commander Sabrina, once we’ve taken control of Lavender Town, what should we do with the Pokémon here? Dr. Sila has been conducting research at the Lake of Rage in Johto and requested that Kanto Team Rocket provide him with some Pokémon for his studies. Should we send some from here?"

"The Lake of Rage?" Rio’s ears perked up—that name sounded familiar.

Then he heard Sabrina reply: "Is that the research on forced Pokémon evolution? Has he made any progress?"

"Yes. I heard he recently managed to evolve a Magikarp into a Gyarados—and it’s a red one."

"In that case, send some of the Pokémon here over to him."

Rio’s pupils contracted. He instantly remembered why the Lake of Rage sounded familiar—it was the very place where Lance, the Champion of both Kanto and Johto, had caught his red Gyarados.

Just thinking about that red Gyarados made Rio’s blood boil with excitement. It was not only imposing and powerful—able to spam Hyper Beam like a basic attack—but its forced evolution also made it deeply resentful of humans. That made it the perfect candidate for his team—and it was a Water-type too.

"That red Gyarados is mine," Rio vowed, his eyes gleaming. He wished he could sprint there right now, afraid that Lance might get there first.

"Hey, you—why are you shaking?" Sabrina’s voice cut through his thoughts, laced with suspicion.