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Looker wasn't fazed by the man's threatening tone. But as he stared at the figure in front of him, he scanned his memory for a match. Despite all the intelligence the International Police had compiled on Team Rocket, nothing matched this guy.
And he clearly wasn't some low-level grunt.
"Who are you?! Are you the one in charge here?!"
The man smirked, crossing his muscular arms as he stared coldly at Looker. "Name's Tyson. I'm the commanding officer of Project R's operations team and the man who's about to kill you."
"Project R?" Looker's brow furrowed. He'd never heard of that before and the unknown made him uneasy. "What is that? Another one of your twisted Rocket schemes?"
"How pathetic," Tyson sneered. "You storm in here without even knowing what you're up against? I'd call that a miracle or maybe just dumb luck."
"Tell me! What is Project R?!"
"Heh... the dead don't need to know," Tyson said coldly.
Without wasting another word, he raised a hand.
Instantly, the Rocket grunts around him unleashed their Pokémon. Dozens upon dozens of Golbat and Weezing swarmed into the sky and across the ground, forming a wall of darkness. Facing them, the International Police responded with a coordinated release of over a hundred Arcanine, their blazing fur a sea of gold against the Rocket wave.
The battle was about to erupt.
Seeing that Team Rocket had no intention of surrendering, Looker drew a deep breath and made one final attempt to avoid bloodshed.
"Team Rocket! You're surrounded! There's nowhere left to run! Surrender now and avoid unnecessary pain!"
But the only reply he got was the screech of Golbat wings and the hiss of smog Team Rocket had made their choice.
"Arrest them!"
Looker gave the command, and the International Police's Arcanine surged forward.
Kai and Sabrina, however, remained by Looker's side.
Mass brawls like this were best left to the rank-and-file agents. Their Pokémon needed to be reserved for whatever bigger threat might still be lurking.
But just as the officers charged into battle something went wrong.
The Arcanine stopped in their tracks.
Their legs buckled. Their bodies twisted in pain. And one by one, they collapsed to the ground, whimpering and shaking violently.
"What the hell?!"
The sight stunned Looker. His head snapped around, searching for the source of the sudden collapse but there was nothing obvious. No visible attacks. No explosions. And no explanation.
No matter how the agents urged them on, the Arcanine couldn't rise. They were paralyzed, wracked with pain, and completely drained of strength.
Meanwhile, the Rocket Pokémon were fine still charging forward without hesitation.
"Were they attacked? Is it poison? What is this?!"
The plan had been airtight. Every move is accounted for. But this turn of events threw everything into chaos and for the first time, Looker's confidence began to waver.
If the operation failed, if his agents were injured, or worse, he'd be held responsible.
"Ahahaha!" Tyson laughed maniacally as the field descended into chaos. "This is part of Project R! Weren't you feeling so confident just a minute ago? Well then, let's see what else you've got!"
Kai suddenly felt his shadow shift beneath him.
He glanced down only to see Gengar emerging from the darkness, clutching its head in pain.
"My head... it hurts!" Gengar winced, its voice trembling. "It feels like something's drilling inside my skull. My strength is fading fast!"
Kai's expression tightened.
For something to affect a Pokémon like Gengar this severely and without warning it had to be…
"Is it some kind of psychic attack?"
"No…" Gengar shook its head. "It's not psychic. It feels like… a wave. Like a signal. A frequency messing with my brain. I can't fight it… I have to get out!"
Without waiting for permission, Gengar activated the Poké Ball at Kai's belt and disappeared inside.
It was the first time Gengar had ever voluntarily returned to its Poké Ball since being caught. That alone spoke volumes about the severity of the attack.
'A wave? A signal?'
Kai hadn't felt a thing. 'Could it be that the signal only affected Pokémon?'
If that were the case, even summoning the Legendary Birds might be useless.
"Damn it…" Looker muttered, processing the pieces. "It makes sense now. Most of Team Rocket's Pokémon here are Golbat and Weezing. If this is some kind of signal attack, they must've tuned the frequency so their own Pokémon aren't affected."
Meanwhile, the Rocket Pokémon reached the front lines and began tearing into the defenceless Arcanine.
The cries of pain echoed across the battlefield as Arcanine after Arcanine fell.
One of the agents ran up to Looker, panic on his face. "Sir! Should we call for a tactical retreat?!"
Looker gritted his teeth.
The smart thing would be to pull back. But to retreat after coming this far it gnawed at him.
He turned to Kai, hoping his trusted ally had a solution.
Kai's eyes swept the compound, then settled on something just past the research facility.
A signal tower.
"To affect so many Pokémon at once… this isn't some small gadget. Look there I'm betting the signal's coming from that tower. Take it out, and we should be able to disable the interference."
Looker followed his gaze to the tall, steel spire.
But they had a problem.
"The whole base is under that signal's coverage," Looker said grimly. "And it's crawling with Rocket grunts. Without our Pokémon, there's no way to even get close."
Kai exhaled quietly and looked at Sabrina.
The signal didn't seem to affect humans so there was only one option left.
To be honest, in the middle of all this chaos, Kai didn't want the woman he loved to throw herself into that kind of danger.
Even someone as powerful as Sabrina couldn't possibly withstand that many enemy Pokémon without backup.
But beside him, Sabrina met his eyes without hesitation. Her face was calm. Then she nodded.
No words are needed.
After all, they'd been through, their connection was stronger than words. She understood the risk. She understood the stakes.
And she knew… it had to be her.
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