The man endured the stabbing pain in his leg and hurriedly treated himself with antidotes. He used more than 10 of the best ones he had—some to drink, some to apply directly—and Arbok helped draw out the venom. Only then did the poison slow down for the moment.
Reiji had no intention of letting him recover in peace. The ambush had forced the man to reveal his final Pokémon. Toxicroak's sneak attack had been blocked by Protect, and the hidden Pokémon had been the one to use it.
Even under that much pressure, the man had not thrown out any extra Pokémon. That meant he only had six. Pidgeot could not fight right now either. That made things much easier.
"Gengar, Arbok is yours. Do whatever you want with that venomous thing."
Reiji trusted Gengar to handle it. A Gengar that controlled shadow power would not need long against an ordinary Pokémon. That pressure, that shadowy force, belonged on the level of Legendaries.
"Poliwrath, Rhydon, Gyarados. Keep Steelix busy until Gengar can help."
Reiji still had no clean answer for Steelix. All he could do was send his three strongest Pokémon to hold it down.
The best types against Steelix were Fighting, Ground, Fire, and Water. Poliwrath, Rhydon, and Gyarados were the right choices. Magmar had only just entered Advanced tier; if it went in, one tail swing would be enough to send it flying. Better not.
The two Elite Four-tier Pokémon were tied down again. Gengar handled one. His three main attackers handled the other. Three against one was enough.
Seeing Arbok and Steelix pulled away from him, the man had no choice but to send out Feraligatr again. The half-crippled Elite Four-tier Pokémon emerged with bloodshot eyes.
The man gave it another shot of painkiller. Feraligatr's eyes grew even redder, its breathing rough and violent. The drug would let it ignore the pain for now, boost its burst power, and keep it fighting without feeling fatigue or injury.
"Scyther, Accelgor, draw that brute away."
Then Reiji looked at Feraligatr's unstable state and called to Toxicroak, "You go too. Poison it. Its blood is pumping faster right now, so the poison will spread even faster."
"Croak." Toxicroak looked at Reiji but did not leave. It was worried. Reiji had no Pokémon standing beside him.
"Don't worry. I still have Lucario and the others." Reiji took out more Poké Balls. He had to deal with Medicham next. The man was trying to treat its poison.
Feraligatr could be left to Toxicroak. Reiji trusted its poison. Against a half-crippled Elite Four-tier Pokémon in that terrible condition, bringing it down would not be hard.
"Lucario, support Swampert. Take down Medicham."
"Lu." Lucario looked at the broad back in front of it. In pure burst power, it still could not match Swampert.
Two Advanced-tier Pokémon would be enough to handle a poisoned Medicham. The man had given it antidotes, but Gengar's poison was not something that easy to clear.
"Swam!" Swampert charged with a roar and hammered the ground hard enough to blast dirt and broken stone into the air, leaving a crater where its fist landed.
"Cham!" Medicham saw Swampert bearing down on it. It shoved the man away and used Teleport to draw Swampert and Lucario off, keeping their fight away from its Trainer.
Even Steelix and Arbok's battles had moved away from the man. If an Elite Four-tier fight accidentally killed the Trainer, all of Arbok's effort to treat him would have been pointless.
Now the man had only two Pokémon left at his side: Pidgeot, and the hidden one that could not stay hidden much longer.
"You… you're Spider…" The man stared at Reiji as he approached, shocked enough that he could barely speak. He pushed himself backward with one leg, trying to get away.
He finally understood Reiji's other identity.
This boy was the leader of Spider, the one Team Rocket had been hunting all this time. An Elite Four-tier Trainer.
And now the man regretted chasing him.
The moment Toxicroak and Gengar appeared, it all clicked. That darkness had never belonged to Darkrai. He had seen it clearly: Gengar's crimson eyes, and the darkness around it.
Add Toxicroak to that, and the answer was obvious. Spider was Team Rocket's number one enemy. Their Elite Four-tier members had all paid attention to the organization that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
"Oh? You figured it out." Reiji smiled and released Magmar, Pidgeot, Dugtrio, and Magneton.
These four were weaker, but they were enough to deal with the man himself. At this point, the fight was about who still had Pokémon to spare.
Spinarak and Golbat stayed near him. He still needed guards of his own.
"Pidgeot!" The man had no choice but to throw out his last visible Pokémon.
But his Pidgeot had been flying all day, from four or five in the morning until after dark.
Fight?
Not a chance.
The moment it came out, the man's Pidgeot dropped to the ground. It barely reacted when it saw Reiji's Pidgeot. Reiji's Pidgeot, on the other hand, looked eager.
One Pidgeot had been exhausted for an entire day. The other had rested and was ready. With Golbat helping too, it was two against one. There was no suspense here.
Now only one Pokémon remained.
Reiji looked at the man and smiled. "Bring it out. You know you're not leaving here alive."
"Heh… To think an Elite Four-tier Trainer like me would be pushed this far by a nobody like you." The man in the jacket threw his head back and roared, full of rage and humiliation. "I won't accept this. I won't!"
He was an Elite Four-tier Trainer. On the ship, at home—wherever he went, people treated him with respect. He had people waiting on him. How had a brat fresh off the Indigo Plateau Conference pushed him into a corner like this?
The boy was only the champion of a rookie tournament. He should not have this kind of strength.
Unless he was Spider.
Hahaha. So he had run into Spider.
Hahaha.
Damn it.
"Heh. Magneton, Thunderbolt."
Reiji sneered. Since the man still refused to behave, he gave the order at once.
Electricity snapped through the air.
A yellow bolt shot from Magneton toward the man. At that moment, his final hidden Pokémon appeared.
The watch on his wrist melted, turning into a sticky purple blob. The blob shifted again, transforming into a Ground-type Pokémon and blocking Thunderbolt for him.
"If I die, you won't get away either." The man took out his phone, trying to type a message. If he exposed Reiji as Spider, neither the League nor Team Rocket would leave Reiji any room to survive.
"You don't get the chance. Dugtrio."
Reiji smiled.
Dugtrio burst out from under the man and bit down on the phone.
Crack.
With one bite, Dugtrio crushed it. Sending a message was out of the question now. The phone was scrap, and it probably could not even turn on.
Reiji had noticed the phone the moment the man pulled it out. Besides, the area was already covered by Electric Terrain. Even if he had finished typing, what then?
Electric Terrain would have jammed the signal anyway. This deep in the mountains around Mt. Silver, there were no cell towers nearby. Unless he had a satellite phone, that message was going nowhere.
When the man saw his phone taken and crushed by Dugtrio, his eyes nearly split with rage. Then all the color drained from his face.
His only way to contact the outside had been destroyed.
He had never been in a situation like this before. He had never imagined he would need to send such important information with no backup plan at all. Now he could not send a message, much less a distress signal.
All that waited for him was death.
With no Pokémon left at his side, Spinarak leapt over and spat silk, tying him in place. It even sealed his mouth. Bound to a tree, he could not move or speak.
The only enemy left was Ditto.
Magmar, Dugtrio, and Magneton surrounded it. They beat it down without mercy.
Now they only had to finish the man's Pokémon and leave. His reinforcements were probably getting close.
"Gen, gen."
Not long after, Gengar returned carrying Arbok. The snake was dead. Its skull had been hollowed out; Gengar had dug out the poison sac and eaten it. The rest of the body was tossed onto the ground.
"Gengar, help Poliwrath and the others. Finish this fast."
Black, foul-smelling venom still clung to the corner of Gengar's mouth. An Elite Four-tier poison sac was a perfect supplement for it.
"Gen." Gengar nodded and looked toward the huge figure of Steelix.
The massive body was all hard metal. Poliwrath, Rhydon, and Gyarados had only managed to stall it so far. They had not been able to bring it down, and they were close to their limit.
Steelix's 200 base Defense was exactly why it had lasted this long. If it had been Feraligatr, it would probably already be down.
Thud.
As if summoned by that thought, Feraligatr's huge body crashed down in front of Reiji.
Feraligatr was already dead. Its body had gone purple-black from the poison, its eyes were dull, and blood still leaked from its open jaws. Reiji had expected as much.
The painkiller the man gave Feraligatr had thrown it into an excited state. Put simply, it was a stimulant. At that point, Feraligatr barely had any reason left, only violence and the urge to destroy.
Once Toxicroak landed poison on it, and Scyther and Accelgor kept kiting it around, its loss was only a matter of time.
After taking down Feraligatr, Scyther, Accelgor, and Toxicroak dropped from above. All three were panting and injured.
Toxicroak had led the attack. One arm hung limp, half its face was badly swollen, and a deep wound tore across its thigh, exposing muscle underneath. It had clearly been a brutal fight.
Scyther was not much better. Half of its four wings were gone, leaving it unable to fly. There were claw marks across its thigh and abdomen as well. It was badly hurt.
Accelgor had gotten off lightest. It was too fast for Feraligatr to land a clean hit, and its job had mostly been support and poisoning.
Boom.
While Reiji treated the three and recalled them, Steelix suddenly collapsed.
Gengar really was reliable. The moment it joined the fight, it finished the Elite Four-tier Steelix and dragged it over with psychic power.
Reiji went straight to Poliwrath, Rhydon, and Gyarados next. Potions, painkillers, medicine to drink, medicine to rub into the wounds—whatever they needed, he used it.
All three were in rough shape.
Gyarados had lost a large patch of scales. Its tail fin was torn, several teeth were missing, and even one of the horns on its head had snapped.
Rhydon was worse. It lay on the ground, unable to get up, its arms hanging limp at its sides. Gengar had been the one to drag it over. Its legs were cut open, much of its armor-like hide had been stripped away, and bare flesh showed through in several places. The horn on top of its head was broken too, though the one on its nose had somehow stayed intact.
Poliwrath's fists were split open, the skin and flesh torn from the strain. It had pushed Waterfall too hard, too many times, without fully guarding against the backlash. Now it was so exhausted it could barely move.
"Pidge! Pidgeot!"
Pidgeot came down from above with a purple-black bird clutched in its talons. It dropped the enemy Pidgeot in front of Reiji and landed beside it, breathing hard.
It was in much better condition than the others. Its feathers were a mess, but the wounds were shallow. That made sense. It had fought two-on-one, it had gone in fresh, and Golbat had poisoned the enemy Pidgeot early.
"Swamp, swamp."
Swampert came back with Lucario, dragging Medicham between them. It dropped Medicham in front of Reiji.
Those two had gotten off lightly. Reiji gave them a quick treatment, then tried to recall Lucario, but Lucario refused to go back.
"Lu." Lucario stood over Medicham, staring down at it with a conflicted look. It wanted to see what Reiji would do.
Reiji did not know what had gotten into it, but he lowered the Poké Ball and let Lucario stay out. The only fight still going was Ditto, which Magmar and the others had surrounded.
A few minutes later, Dugtrio brought Ditto back and dumped it in front of him.
That was all six of the man's Pokémon accounted for.
While he waited for Dugtrio's group, Reiji had already ordered Gengar to hypnotize the man. Now it was time to get answers.
"Who are you? Who do you work for? Why did you ambush me? Why are you after me? Who sent you?"
"We're security for the Game Corner branch on the passenger ship. I'm from Celadon City… I manage the ship branch. I'm also one of Team Rocket's Elite Four-tier executives in the Game Corner network. No one sent me…"
"I saw your name on Team Rocket's mission list for Elite Four-tier members. You're a Trainer from Mikan Gym. My nephew disappeared in the Orange Archipelago not long ago, and Mikan Gym was involved. My family wanted me to investigate. I thought you might be the opening I needed…"
"Your nephew?" Reiji frowned. He had thought Team Rocket had come after him directly, but apparently that was only part of it. "Which nephew?"
"He used to deliver oranges to Mikan Gym. The family wanted him to join the Gym, marry into it, and take control of Mikan Gym from the inside…"
"Got it. Senta's older cousin."
Now it made sense. There was no such thing as a grudge coming out of nowhere. This was the same undercover Team Rocket family that had failed to get what it wanted from the League. Cissy's grandfather still had something on them, so they had turned their attention to Reiji instead.
That older cousin must have mattered more to the family than Reiji had thought. They were still looking into his disappearance. What kind of parents sent their own son in as an undercover agent? They really had guts.
"What does Team Rocket's wanted notice say about me?"
[End of chapter]
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
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