After leaving some information for Troy, Terrance departed straight away.
Whether the other party could seize the opportunity or not depended on their own talent.
At the Pewter City Pokémon Center, Terrance wanted to book a plane ticket first. Because of the Pokémon Contest, he was already quite familiar with Nurse Joy here.
But compared to the day before, Nurse Joy was clearly distracted now.
"Nurse Joy, I've already finished booking."
"Mm…" Nurse Joy nodded.
"Um, Nurse Joy, is there something on your mind?" Terrance hesitated before speaking, noticing her obvious lack of sleep and haggard face.
Faced with Terrance's question, Nurse Joy from Pewter City was slightly taken aback, then said with evident distress, "Something happened to my cousin."
"She's the nurse at the Old Shore Wharf's Leafport City Pokémon Center. Last night the Leafport City Pokémon Center was attacked. The entire center was destroyed, and my cousin has gone missing." [TN: Author has used the Chinese name for Vermillion City, but with one character mistake. Either it's due to a spelling mistake (which this author does sometimes) or it's just a novel-specific city. If there is more context in later chapters, I will fix it. The city of Old Shore Wharf isn't mentioned in the original work, but it is assumed to be near Vermillion City or the wharf is in Vermillion City by fans.]
Hearing this, Terrance was bewildered. He hadn't thought anyone would dare attack a Pokémon Center.
"Nurse Joy, don't worry yet. Since Leafport City's Nurse Joy is only missing, that means the one behind destroying the center didn't necessarily want to harm her. There's still hope, and with such a major incident, the League will surely take action."
"Nurse Joy, you've helped countless Pokémon; you'll be blessed." Terrance comforted her.
The Leafport City Pokémon Center destroyed?
Although Leafport City was only a second-tier city in the Kanto Region, it was still a well-defended place. Who could be so bold as to cause trouble in the Kanto Region, where the Pokémon League headquarters was located, and even dare abduct Nurse Joy?
Over time, the image of Nurse Joy had become deeply rooted in the hearts of Trainers, and was loved by the vast majority of them. In a sense, harming a Nurse Joy was tantamount to provoking the entire Trainer community.
Terrance thought for a moment, and suddenly felt a chill run through his head.
"Thank you." Pewter City's Nurse Joy gave a slight smile. Though she hadn't yet recovered, she couldn't show her weak side in front of Terrance and could only respond firmly.
"Nurse Joy, I'll also keep an eye out for news about Leafport City's Nurse Joy. Please take good care of yourself."
With his heart pounding, Terrance quickly bid farewell to Nurse Joy and hurriedly left the Pewter City Pokémon Center.
He didn't immediately connect the destruction of the Leafport City Pokémon Center to anything, but Nurse Joy's disappearance caused a faint stirring in his mind, loosening a long-buried memory.
Almost ten years had passed; of the original work's plot he'd once known, only a few classic scenes remained in his memory.
Among them, the one that impressed Terrance the most was without doubt the first theatrical movie of the original series: Mewtwo Strikes Back.
Terrance remembered that in it, a Nurse Joy had been abducted by Mewtwo and became its spokesperson.
"Could it be…" Terrance's brow furrowed.
Mewtwo was the strongest artificial Pokémon, born from Team Rocket's repeated recombination of Mew's genes for research purposes.
Thinking of that original work's plot and Mewtwo's origins, Terrance found himself less worried about Nurse Joy and was instead concerned about his own master, Master Victor.
Could it be that Master Victor's mysterious behavior over the past few months was because he went to take part in the Mewtwo Project? The genes of Mew, known as the ancestor of Pokémon, would be an almost fatal temptation to Master Victor, a master of genetics.
"Could Ralts be one of the failed products of the Mewtwo Project?"
With that lead, Terrance quickly thought of more.
Master Victor didn't elaborate on Ralts's origins, but for a Pokémon with such exceptional talent yet a certain flaw, the probability of it being born naturally is too small to be negligible, if it wasn't artificial.
Terrance closed his eyes. If Mewtwo had already left Team Rocket by now, that would mean the Mewtwo research project was long finished. Then why had Master Victor said he would be gone for several years, and why had he so urgently passed on his secret genetic techniques to Terrance…
It really was Team Rocket after all!
Whether Mewtwo had left or not, as a researcher involved in the Mewtwo Project, Team Rocket would certainly not want him leaking information. It was highly possible they would restrict his personal freedom. Perhaps Master Victor had been coerced by Team Rocket and was now confined.
That would make Master Victor's reason for forbidding Terrance from looking for him very clear. He probably knew Terrance had no ability to stand against Team Rocket and so warned him off.
And to prevent an accident, Master Victor had passed on his secret genetic techniques to Terrance in advance to keep them from being lost. Thinking of it that way, Terrance suddenly found everything made sense.
This was already the closest guess to the truth. Master Victor assumed Terrance would never know where he'd gone, but what Master Victor didn't know was that his disciple was a transmigrator, one who happened to be familiar with Mewtwo and Team Rocket.
This line of reasoning made Terrance grit his teeth in frustration.
For Master Victor to participate in the Mewtwo Project and cooperate with Team Rocket was undoubtedly like making a deal with a tiger. The risks made Terrance's head ache just thinking about it, but perhaps Mew's genes had simply been too alluring.
"If my guess is right, then Master Victor is currently being restricted by Team Rocket. To bring him back, to snatch a Top Breeder from Team Rocket's hands, even a League Champion wouldn't have a hundred percent certainty."
Rubbing his temples, Terrance relaxed his brow. This wasn't something to rush; he needed to confirm further.
And the way to confirm it was through Mewtwo. But no matter how hard Terrance rubbed his head, he simply couldn't remember where Mewtwo's fortress was. He only recalled it being on an island, but the exact name had slipped his mind.
His plan to go alone to Mewtwo's fortress collapsed at once, but that also calmed him down.
If judged only by the original work, Terrance couldn't determine Mewtwo's strength, but with his current strength, he certainly couldn't suppress Mewtwo. If Mewtwo were to go berserk, the disaster it would cause would definitely far exceed the negative impact Darkrai had caused when under Team Nightmare's control.
"If only my team battle system were complete, I wouldn't have so many worries right now!" Terrance said helplessly.
"Could it be that I really have to wait and go together with Ash?"
Ash…
This Trainer, who seems to bring disaster wherever he goes, is truly exasperating. Yet Ash always manages to defuse these disasters with his personal charm, and that's precisely what makes him remarkable.
In that respect, Terrance felt inadequate.
Because of all this, Terrance didn't hurry to leave Pewter City. While thinking about what to do next, he even took the time to cancel his plane ticket.
If he could remember where Mewtwo's fortress was, he might seek outside help and head there first. Otherwise he would have to wait to go along with Ash's group. But if he chose the latter, there should at least be Mew's assistance then, so he wouldn't be too passive when facing Mewtwo.
As things stood now, even though Master Victor had told Terrance not to look for him, after suspecting that Master Victor was being confined by Team Rocket, Terrance couldn't just sit and do nothing.
Besides that, Ralts's loss of emotional capacity was also a source of worry for Terrance. Having already accepted Ralts as his partner, he had been searching for a way to solve its problem, making many efforts but achieving little. If Ralts really did share the same origin as Mewtwo, then perhaps Mewtwo would have a solution.
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