Pokémon: Raising Abandoned Pokémon into Legends

Chapter 57: Rio: This Guy Was Born with a Silver Spoon!

Primeape threw a full-powered punch at the nearest Houndoom.

"Hound—" Houndoom let out a pained cry, and under the stunned gazes of the surrounding Pokémon and Rockets, it flew from the eastern shore of the Lake of Rage all the way to the western shore—a distance of several hundred meters.

"My Houndoom!!!" its trainer wailed.

"This Primeape..." Dr. Sila’s mouth hung open in shock.

After the initial shock, however, excitement took over. He could tell that this Primeape had undergone some kind of genetic mutation that caused an incredible boost in strength. Otherwise, there was no way it could have sent a Houndoom flying that far with a single punch.

"Quick, quick—subdue this Primeape! This is a double blessing today—we’re taking both this Primeape and that Red Gyarados!" Dr. Sila laughed heartily, already picturing himself becoming Team Rocket’s chief researcher.

On the other side, Rio couldn’t help but laugh at the doctor’s delusional enthusiasm. A double blessing? You sure about that? I think you’re about to kneel and sing for mercy.

"Roaar~" Charizard let out a cry beneath him. Rio turned his attention from the Rockets and followed Charizard’s gaze—Lance’s Dragonite was charging a Hyper Beam, about to fire.

Without needing Rio’s command, Charizard began charging its own Flamethrower—its only move that could match Dragonite’s in a beam clash.

"Charizard, don’t engage head-on—focus on dodging for now. You’ll get your chance to beat it later," Rio said.

Though Dragonite was heavily wounded, it still outleveled Mega Charizard Y by fifteen levels. Rio didn’t expect to defeat Lance’s Dragonite—he just needed to stall until Primeape had vented its anger and they could escape.

"Roaar~" Charizard dispersed the Flamethrower, swiftly rose into the air, and narrowly dodged the incoming Hyper Beam.

BOOM— The Hyper Beam slammed into the Rocket ranks instead, instantly taking out a Granbull and a Sunflora.

"Damn you, Lance!" Dr. Sila glared furiously at him. He hadn’t ordered his Rockets to attack the Elite Four member, yet this bastard had taken the initiative to strike them.

Lance ignored the hostile glares from below and continued commanding Dragonite to pursue Charizard. In his eyes, both the Rockets and this Charizard trainer were scum—all of them had to stay here.

"Some of you—go attack Lance! That Charizard can’t beat Dragonite alone. Before we subdue this Primeape, don’t let it fall—or Dragonite’s full pressure will land on all of us!"

Soon, a portion of the Rockets’ Pokémon joined the aerial melee between Dragonite and Charizard. The rest continued dealing with the overwhelmingly powerful Primeape.

This turn of events caught Rio off guard—the pressure from Dragonite suddenly dropped significantly. He wanted to stand up and applaud Dr. Sila. Beautiful—this is exactly what I needed. If you keep this up, my chances of escaping just went way up!

"Charizard, Dragon Breath—don’t let the Rockets’ Pokémon get wiped out!" Rio commanded.

"Roaar~" Charizard gathered energy in its mouth and fired whenever Lance tried to take out the Rockets’ Pokémon that were helping share the burden. What had been an impossible clash before was now balanced—with the support of several other Level 30–40 Pokémon, Charizard could actually match Dragonite’s power.

"Damn these pests—I should have brought more Pokémon!" Lance growled in frustration after several clashes failed to give Dragonite a decisive advantage.

He had expected today’s mission to be easy, so he’d only brought three Pokémon: Dragonite, a blue Gyarados, and a newly caught fossil Pokémon.

With no other choice, Lance released his final Pokémon.

"Come out, Aerodactyl—I need your help!"

With a flash of light, a bare, featherless purple Pokémon with a vicious expression appeared before Rio’s eyes.

"Wraaah~" Aerodactyl let out a deafening roar upon entering the battlefield, instilling fear in the Rockets’ Pokémon. Even Charizard felt a flicker of tension—though it quickly passed.

Rio narrowed his eyes as he scanned Aerodactyl’s stats.

[Pokémon: Aerodactyl]

[Level: 58 (Time until next level: 65 days)]

[Talent: Elite Four]

[Ability: Pressure]

[Gender: Male]

[Moves: Wing Attack (65%), Scary Face (65%), Fire Fang (64%), Roar (61%), Agility (61%), Ancient Power (60%), Take Down (60%), Crunch (60%), Iron Head (59%), Hyper Beam (54%)]

Damn it—this guy was born with a silver spoon! As the heir of the Dragon Tamer Clan, Lance already had two Elite Four–talent Pokémon and one Quasi-Elite Four. If he’d caught the Red Gyarados today, he’d have three Elite Four–talent Pokémon. Rio, by comparison, had only one—Primeape, and that was thanks to the system.

The only silver lining was that while Aerodactyl had high levels and talent, its move proficiencies didn’t match its level—probably a recent capture. Lucky bastard.

Lance’s cold voice cut through the air: "Aerodactyl, Hyper Beam!"

Think you can balance the scales? With Aerodactyl joining the fight, let’s see how you hold up.

"Wraaah~" Aerodactyl roared and began charging a powerful beam.

Seeing this, Rio didn’t immediately give an order. Instead, he glanced over at Primeape’s situation. The anger on its face seemed to have subsided significantly—it must have had its fill of fighting.

Dr. Sila, meanwhile, was no longer excited—he was drenched in sweat. Why? Because no one could have predicted that this Primeape would be stronger than anyone imagined. Nearly twenty Rocket Pokémon had surrounded it, but it spun and leaped with ghostlike agility—they couldn’t land a hit.

One Hitmonlee managed to close in and trade punches with Mega Punch, but Primeape sent it flying with a single blow. Some special attacks did land—Thunderbolt, Flamethrower—but Primeape just powered through them and sent the Raichu and Magmar that used them flying into the lake.

Now, only four or five Pokémon remained out of the original twenty-plus.

There was no way to capture this thing—they had to retreat.

"Fall back! Now! If we don’t pull out now, everyone’s staying here!" Seeing the situation was hopeless, Dr. Sila abandoned his plans to capture Primeape and retrieve the Red Gyarados.

Seeing this, Rio patted Charizard’s back and signaled it to abandon their allies. Charizard understood.

So when Dragonite and Aerodactyl’s Hyper Beams came at them simultaneously, Charizard didn’t fire back—it simply shot upward.

BOOM— The two powerful beams struck the Rockets who hadn’t yet realized their leader was retreating. Several of their Pokémon were instantly taken out.

The Rockets below looked up at Rio with curses on their lips. Son of a—

"Think you can run? Don’t even dream of it!"

"Aerodactyl, Roar!" Lance commanded coldly.

"Wraaah~" Aerodactyl chased after Charizard at high speed, unleashing a terrifying roar.

The next second—

Rio was dumbfounded.

Because the move’s effect forcibly recalled Charizard into its Poké Ball—and forced out Munchlax in its place. The two stared at each other midair, equally confused.

A bewildered trainer. A bewildered Pokémon.

Both plummeted from the sky at breakneck speed.