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The wide, rocky cavern was practically built for Raikou.
Team Magma and Team Aqua might have had numbers, but the terrain favored the Legend. With no allies to avoid and no need to hold back, Raikou tore through the battlefield freely, weaving between rock pillars and striking with precision far beyond an ordinary Electric-type.
Even Courtney and Shelly could tell it wasn't their grunts' incompetence their opponent was simply on an entirely different level.
Even Raikou's basic Thunderbolts carried destructive power far beyond anything they'd ever seen.
Courtney was the first to lose her composure. With a sharp gesture, she released her Pokémon.
A massive camel-like Pokémon with thick orange fur, a long snout, a body shaped like a cumbersome beast of burden, and two rocky magma humps appeared with a rumbling growl.
Camerupt.
Standing nearly two meters tall, Camerupt's presence alone outclassed the other Pokémon around it. Under Courtney's command, Camerupt lumbered forward and unleashed a scorching Flamethrower directly at Raikou.
On the other side, Shelly saw Courtney enter the battle and instinctively reached for her own Poké Ball but something felt wrong. Her instincts as Team Aqua's strategist, the woman with the sharpest sense of judgment second only to Archie himself, warned her that something about all this was off.
She scanned the battlefield…
And immediately noticed two figures, one tall, one small, creeping behind their forces.
They weren't Magma grunts.
They weren't Aqua grunts.
Just an unfamiliar man and a teenage girl.
Shelly's eyes narrowed.
"Stop right there! Who are you!?"
Her shout exposed them instantly, drawing Courtney's attention as well.
Courtney's expression darkened, They had been followed.
Meanwhile, Kai wasn't surprised at being discovered. Given the chaos and the structure of the cavern, getting this close unnoticed was already impressive.
Without hesitation, he shouted—
"Now!"
A Gengar burst up from the ground in the middle of the battlefield with a chilling cackle, each hand gripping a Dark Ball before flinging them into the crowd.
BOOM! BOOM!
The explosions rippled outward, catching both Magma and Aqua members completely off guard. Bodies and Pokémon alike were thrown aside.
At the same moment, Raikou roared, gathering light in its jaws then fired a cannon-like blast of power that split the battlefield in half.
Zap Cannon.
Not the strongest Electric move in existence, but in Raikou's claws?
A one-move battlefield wipe.
Between Gengar's ambush and Raikou's overwhelming strike, most of their enemies were down including Courtney and Shelly, who were both knocked to the ground by the shockwaves.
Taking advantage of the chaos, Kai and Misty rushed to Professor Cozmo, cutting his ropes and pulling him along as they sprinted back toward the path they'd used to enter.
The cave shook from the force of the explosions. Chunks of rock slid down the walls as dust filled the air.
Courtney and Shelly shielded their faces until the dust settled and by then, Kai, Misty, Raikou, and Gengar were already gone.
"Damn it!!" Courtney snarled, standing up as she prepared to give chase.
But before she could, Shelly burst into laughter.
Courtney shot her a glare. "What are you laughing at?"
Shelly wiped a tear from her eye. "I'm laughing because you put so much effort into tracking us here… only for someone else to swoop in and take everything!"
Courtney bristled. "As if you, Aqua people, didn't waste even more resources than we did!"
Shelly shrugged casually. "We never cared that deeply. The ocean is our true focus. The meteorite was only an optional tool. Whether we gain it or not doesn't change much. But seeing you fail? Oh, that's priceless."
Courtney gritted her teeth. No point arguing Magma and Aqua were natural enemies. One side's misery was the other's joy.
She turned sharply and ordered her grunts to regroup, then rushed in Kai's direction.
As soon as they were gone, an Aqua grunt hurried to Shelly's side.
"Boss! What do we do?"
Shelly's smile vanished instantly, replaced by a cold, sharp glint.
"We chase them too."
Her earlier dismissal had only been to irritate Courtney. Aqua had spent weeks on this operation. There was no way she would let Cozmo slip away so easily.
This time, she planned to let Magma and that mysterious trainer clash and swoop in at the end.
Shelly reorganized her own forces and set off after them.
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Meanwhile, Kai, Misty, and Professor Cozmo followed the path toward Meteor Falls.
Just as they reached the waterfall, Cozmo abruptly pointed toward a narrow side passage.
"This way!"
Kai didn't hesitate. He and Misty followed the professor into a cramped crevice barely wide enough for one person at a time.
Moments later, Courtney and her team arrived at the falls just seconds too late.
Before them stood hundreds of cave entrances. For ordinary people, finding the right one would be impossible.
But Magma didn't rely on luck.
Courtney released several Houndoom, each sniffing the air intensely. Within seconds, they all dashed toward the narrow tunnel Cozmo had used.
"There! After them!!"
Hearing the pursuing footsteps, Kai glanced back with a sigh.
Persistent bunch…
Cozmo led them deeper, turning endlessly through winding tunnels. Yet the sound of pursuit only grew louder.
Kai was preparing to stand his ground when—
CRASH.
A massive boulder dropped from above, sealing the passage behind them completely.
A girl's voice echoed overhead.
"Up here!"
A vine dropped from the ledge above.
Cozmo grabbed it immediately and climbed. Kai recalled Raikou, then he and Misty followed. When they reached the top, they finally saw their rescuer clearly.
A girl around seventeen or eighteen, strikingly pretty, with short black hair, a cloak draped behind her, a black T-shirt, dangerously short shorts, and a strange anklet.
But most distinctive was the scale-like collar at her neck an unmistakable relic.
Kai recognized her instantly.
Zinnia.
The Lorekeeper of the Draconid people.
At her feet sat a round pink Pokémon with big ears, Whismur, no doubt the one that had shoved down the giant boulder.
Zinnia quickly pulled the vine up.
"This isn't the place to talk. Come with me."
She darted into a dark tunnel. Below them, Magma finally broke through the fallen boulder, so Kai and Misty hurried after her.
The tunnel ran deep, lit only by the faint glow of distant minerals. Zinnia moved as if she could see perfectly without a torch. After crossing an underground river, they finally reached a stone chamber furnished with rock-carved shelves, beds, and storage clearly someone's hideout.
Zinnia lit an oil lamp, filling the room with warm light.
She turned first to Cozmo with a small shake of her head. "Didn't expect you to get yourself caught by Aqua, That was careless of you."
Her familiarity made Kai immediately realize they knew each other.
Cozmo sighed, then looked at Kai and Misty.
"Thank you for saving me. I didn't catch your names earlier."
"I'm Kai," he said. "This is Misty. We were passing through Meteor Falls when we saw you being taken. We just followed."
Cozmo thanked them again earnestly. Without them, he would've been forced by both Magma and Aqua to extract meteorite fragments.
Then something else struck him.
"Wait—Kai… that Pokémon earlier. The electric one. Was that Raikou? The Raikou of Johto's legends?"
As a Pokémon researcher, Cozmo clearly recognized it even through the chaos.
Zinnia perked up as well, eyes gleaming with curiosity.
Kai nodded. "Yeah, it's Raikou, and it's one of my Pokémon."
Both Cozmo and Zinnia stared at him in open admiration.
A trainer who had befriended a Legendary Pokémon this wasn't someone ordinary.
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~Support with 200 PowerStones = 1 Bonus Chapter
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