Chapter 357: The Evil Dragon Kidnaps People

"This is the Blaze Badge you've earned."

Yasha held out the badge, burning like a blazing flame, "Congratulations! You're an excellent Trainer!"

"Thank you."

All Baimu received it with both hands and nodded in acknowledgment.

As a young-generation Trainer from Hoenn, Yasha's strength was still remarkably outstanding; it was just that after being a Gym Leader for too long, most of her Pokémon information had already been leaked online.

Combined with the fact that Gym Battles focused on teaching and didn't allow free Pokémon switching, her combat power couldn't be fully brought to bear.

Whenever the Pokémon World Championships began, or whenever some Champion retired or voluntarily stepped down, when Yasha participated, people would know roughly how strong she truly was.

Off to the side.

Mula looked at All Baimu, the appreciation in his eyes impossible to conceal.

He rarely encountered such a like-minded young Trainer; unfortunately, he was already advanced in years and his heart was willing but his strength fell short. Added to that, in recent years he had become hopelessly addicted to Pokémon Senryu, and in every respect was not what he had been in his years as an active Gym Leader—otherwise he would absolutely have taken him on as a student.

This might not be the best way to put it, but Mula felt this child's future achievements might well surpass those of his own granddaughter by a great deal.

Especially when he learned that All Baimu had only started raising Pokémon half a year ago.

"There are plenty of powerful Fire-type Pokémon on Mt. Chimney. If you're interested in Fire-types, you can go take a look, or the Fiery Path is also an excellent choice."

Mula couldn't help but recommend Fire-type Pokémon.

"Alright, thank you."

All Baimu carefully put the badge away, expressed his thanks to the old man, and quietly asked Yasha about the Team Rocket base: "May I ask if you could reveal the reason Team Rocket came to Hoenn… is it simply a plan to set up an additional branch base?"

"I'm actually not too clear on that myself."

Yasha scratched her head, then asked strangely, "Why do you seem so concerned about Team Rocket?"

"Of course it's because I'm worried about running into them next."

His reasoning was solid: "Team Rocket swindles, deceives, and stops at nothing. If I know the reason, I can be on my guard—what if there's something on me that they've got their eye on?"

Yasha nodded generously, "Fair point! How about this, then—I'll go with you to the police station and ask."

"Great! Thanks a lot!"

Shortly after.

The two took their leave of Mula, first stopping by the Pokémon Center to heal their Pokémon's injuries, then heading to the police station.

It happened that Officer Jenny had also been planning to come find Yasha.

"Is there something like a Mega Crystal on Mt. Chimney? Does old man Mula know about this?" she said, holding a report in her hand, and handed it over upon seeing the latter.

Yasha didn't know the first thing about this stuff; she said with a blank look, "No idea. I'll go back and ask him in a bit. Oh, right! Officer Jenny, why did Team Rocket set up a secret base on Mt. Chimney?"

"Just for this so-called Mega Crystal—seems to have something to do with Mega Evolution."

Officer Jenny pointed at the report, "And this secret base isn't even Team Rocket's—they just took over a base abandoned by Team Magma."

"Ah~, I see~"

Yasha had an "enlightened" expression, then turned to look at All Baimu beside her, "Do you understand?"

The latter nodded slightly, "More or less…"

Team Rocket had actually come for Mega Evolution—he really hadn't thought of that right away, but on second thought it seemed perfectly reasonable and only to be expected.

With Giovanni's strategic eye, how could he possibly ignore such a tremendous power.

The composition of Mega Stones was quite complex—some say it's life energy, some say it's natural energy.

The Hoenn region, as one of the birthplaces of Mega Evolution, had its origin identified in the anime as an ancient, seven-colored giant stone imbued with vast primal energy.

Combined with the game content.

All Baimu provisionally concluded that this thing was a seven-colored meteorite that had fallen from the sky several thousand years ago.

Back then, Primal Groudon and Primal Kyogre waged endless war day after day, fighting solely over the vast natural energy of the Hoenn region; but when the seven-colored meteorite fell at Meteor Falls, the Rayquaza that arrived put an end to their conflict.

Most likely it was this one.

In the anime, it was later seized by Fladry, copied into a fake Zygarde that nearly destroyed the Kalos region, and upon appearing triggered a scramble among the three gods of sea, land, and sky.

So whether this Mega Crystal Team Rocket was searching for actually existed…

All Baimu felt it was hard to say.

What if it was a larger fragment broken off during the meteorite's descent? The Mega Stones scattered throughout the Hoenn region were most likely meteorite fragments.

Of course.

Up to now, only he knew about this situation.

The annoying thing was he had no idea where the legendary giant stone was—the anime didn't even show a search process, just cut straight to some ruins.

But judging from how a single Team Rocket grunt in Sun & Moon could already Mega Evolve a Bossloedra, Team Rocket must have had some gains…

Did Lei Gong come to the Hoenn region to prevent Team Rocket from mastering Mega Evolution?

Unfortunately, the three legendary beasts of Ho-Oh's escort couldn't Mega Evolve.

Having roughly figured out the reason.

All Baimu sent a message on his phone to Huo Cun.

Do you guys have a secret base near the Jagged Pass on Mt. Chimney?

Buzz buzz~

No sooner had the message been sent than a reply came within two seconds.

Huo Cun: How do you know? Did you find it? That place should've been cleaned out by now!

All Baimu: Unfortunately, your old base has been taken over by Team Rocket. They're using it to search for some Mega Crystal, probably related to Mega Evolution. Do you know about this stuff?

Huo Cun: Mega Crystal? Ha! Isn't this the project we abandoned N years ago!

All Baimu: What do you mean? Can you share?

Huo Cun: No harm telling you. Back then, to make Primal Groudon revert and gain even greater power, we searched everywhere for Mega Stones and a Keystone, and figured that since this thing was a stone, there had to be an entire vein of it—maybe it could provide enough power… but as you know, we came up empty.

Huocun: Ah! It's not like we came away empty-handed—we managed to find a few Key Stones and Super Stones. Chief Chiyansong and Captain Huoyan's Super Stones and Key Stones came from those.

Baimu: I see. Thank you!

Huocun: No problem. We should thank you for warning us—Faron Region isn't somewhere Team Rocket can just wander into. We'll make sure they crawl back to Kanto and Johto.

Baimu: Huh! You're not planning to go to war, are you?

Huocun: Depends on the situation. I'm a legitimate business now. By the way, you could also notify Team Aqua—they don't like Team Rocket either.

Baimu: …Fine.

Though he didn't understand why Team Magma and Team Aqua held such strong animosity toward Team Rocket, it was still good to find someone who'd take them on.

Perhaps the old saying was right: competitors are the truest form of hatred?

Even if both the Red and Blue Teams have long since abandoned their villainous ways.

——

Back at the hotel.

Baimu had planned to confirm something with Lei Gong.

But the guy had apparently slipped out, leaving only a Mao Jin floating in the pool.

"Could this big cat really think its injury's healed and sneaked off?" He glanced around suspiciously, thinking Lei Gong wouldn't be this heartless.

Just leave without saying a word.

If it really vanished without a word, then next time Baimu saw it, he'd have no qualms about breaking the code of conduct—capture it first, then talk later. Even if he'd eventually grant Lei Gong freedom, he'd scare it first.

And it needed to understand just how much resentment he held.

He hadn't even rubbed its belly or head yet!

"Forget it."

Baimu shook his head and released his Pokémon.

"Sashang!"

The Dragonite appeared and lunged at its trainer without hesitation—

And missed completely, crashing headfirst into the bed.

This wasn't because Baimu deliberately dodged—it was because since gaining sight, Dragonite had always operated with dual vision from its two heads, adjusting its position when lunging.

Now, with single vision, it was disoriented—its spatial sense needed retraining.

Dragonite was frantic.

"Sashang—Sashang—"

"Alright, alright! You damn noisy thing!" Baimu sighed and shoved his right hand into its massive mouth.

Dragonite snapped its jaws shut and felt its trainer's hand had become much smaller.

But the taste was still familiar.

Its earlier intense emotions calmed instantly.

Compared to its Double-Headed Dragon phase, Dragonite's size had grown dramatically—from the Pokédex's average height of 180 cm to nearly 210 cm, now matching the bulk of a Machamp.

Even for a double bed, this was a severe test.

Fortunately, it had the Float ability—it could control its descent and hover unconsciously, sleeping entirely off the bed.

But it wasn't kind to Baimu's heart.

Waking up at night or in the day, he might find himself staring straight into Dragonite's fierce, massive head.

"You look way more menacing now."

Baimu pulled Dragonite to the full-length mirror, making it examine its new appearance, to help with adaptation.

"Sashang…"

Dragonite stared at the unfamiliar creature in the mirror—first panicked, then belatedly realized its claws had become two mouths.

But its vision was still only one, not three.

Why?

"Sashang?"

Dragonite turned its head, waving its two mouths to ask its trainer why.

"Because these two heads have no brains, unlike your old ones. Only this one is your real head; the other two are fake, so they don't even have eyes. Understand?"

Baimu patted its large head and two small ones in turn.

Dragonite didn't understand at all.

What fake head, real head? A head is a head.

It lifted its left and right heads, suddenly inspired, reaching toward its trainer's left and right hands, then gently bit down.

Hmm~

It did have taste!

It lifted its head, staring directly into its trainer's confused face, then opened its huge mouth and bit down—whole head first.

There!

So this is how the three heads work! There!

I'm so smart!

"Sawu…"

Dragonite clamped Baimu's head and chin, licking his face with its tongue, letting out triumphant "awoo-awoo" sounds.

The other Pokémon watched, stunned, then rushed over, desperately prying open its jaws to rescue the man before he suffocated.

Oh no!

Dragonite's gone mad! It's eating its trainer!