Chapter 300 – Rookie Training
"When you mention Pokémon..."
"When you mention Pokémon..."
"Pokémon Hunters are criminals who use illegal means to capture and sell Pokémon!" Pearl declared solemnly.
Diamond gasped. "How terrifying!"
"If we infiltrate the Pokémon Hunters and get caught, we're doomed."
"What?! That dangerous?!"
"They might even capture Chatot and Munchlax to sell them off!" Pearl pulled a horrified expression.
Diamond threw himself at Munchlax. "Nooo! If Munchlax has to be sold, then sell me instead...!"
Platinum: "...."
Watching them get lost in their own performance, Platinum turned to Asahi.
She couldn't see what potential he saw in these two at all.
"Ahem." Asahi cleared his throat, cutting them off. "It's time to choose your joining benefits!"
With that, he pulled out two remaining Poké Balls and Pokédexes from Professor Rowan.
"Chimchar and Turtwig... these are Sinnoh's starter Pokémon."
At the sight of the two Pokémon, Pearl and Diamond's attention snapped to full focus.
After a brief moment of contemplation, they made their choices!
The energetic Pearl picked the equally fiery Chimchar, while the laid-back Diamond went with the sluggish-looking Turtwig.
"You should all know by now—our mission is to disguise ourselves as Pokémon Hunters and infiltrate Hunter J's crew. But with your current strength, you're nowhere near ready for this mission!"
"Which is why, starting now and all the way to Jubilife City, I'll be putting you through special training!"
"Special training?!"
Even Platinum perked up at that.
"That's right! Training!" Asahi nodded. "Under my guidance, you'll become independent Pokémon Trainers!"
"And your first training task—"
"Take down the Team Galactic members loitering around the TV station!"
Pearl and Diamond exchanged glances.
"Speaking of Team Galactic..."
"Speaking of Team Galactic!"
Asahi and Platinum: "....."
Were these two always like this?
---
On a quiet northern road in Jubilife City, a Team Galactic Grunt strolled by, Poké Ball in hand.
As he passed a patch of tall grass—
A Chatot suddenly burst out!
Caught off guard, the Grunt barely had time to react.
"Chatot, Chatter!"
A chaotic flurry of nonsensical words exploded into sound waves, hammering the Grunt's ears and contorting his face in pain.
Gritting his teeth, he reached for his Poké Ball—
Before he could throw it—
A shadow darted from the grass!
A plump, common Starly.
But unlike normal Starly, this one was oddly fearless.
"Starly, Thief!"
The tiny bird struck with surprising speed, knocking the Poké Ball right out of the Grunt's hand!
"Caw!"
Starly swooped up with the stolen Poké Ball.
"Give that back!"
The Grunt lunged after it—
But just then, yet another shadow shot out from the grass.
"Another one?!"
The Grunt barely had time to process this before—
BAM!
A heavy impact struck him full force, sending him crashing to the ground.
As his vision blurred, the last thing he saw was—
A lazy, round-bodied Munchlax sitting atop him, happily munching on a berry.
Crunch.
Munchlax bit down on another berry.
Hearing the rustling behind the grass, Pearl's voice called out, "Diamond! Stop snacking and get Munchlax to drag him in!"
"Ah—ah! Munchlax!"
After a clumsy struggle, they managed to drag the unconscious Grunt into the bushes.
Tying his hands and gagging his mouth, the group finally let out a sigh of relief.
"Are we... the bad guys now?"
This was their first time attacking a Trainer directly.
Platinum's heart pounded with both excitement and nerves.
Hearing Platinum's concerns, Diamond and Pearl both nodded. They had similar worries.
At that moment, Asahi's voice came from behind them.
"No need to worry. We are International Police officers with the authority to enforce the law, while Team Galactic is officially wanted by the League. As International Police, we are free to choose the most effective means to deal with criminals."
"Mister Asahi!"
The three turned around to see Asahi holding four cups of ice cream.
Handing out the ice cream to the three of them and giving some PokéBlocks to their Pokémon, Asahi smiled. "I saw your teamwork—it was pretty good. Congratulations, you've passed the first lesson of your special training."
"Now, let's move on to the second lesson."
Asahi then turned his attention to the unconscious Team Galactic grunt on the ground, nudging him awake.
The moment the grunt regained consciousness and saw the four standing in front of him, his expression shifted from confusion to alarm, and he immediately began struggling.
But Asahi was unfazed.
With a calm smile, he looked at the three recruits and said, "The second lesson of your training—Interrogation!"
At his signal, Gardevoir raised a hand, and a psychic wave enveloped the grunt.
The struggling immediately stopped.
"I ask, you answer. Got it?"
---
After extracting the necessary intel, Asahi nodded to Gardevoir, who promptly knocked the grunt out again.
The entire process was smooth and efficient, leaving Platinum, Diamond, and Pearl staring in shock.
"Well?" Asahi asked, raising an eyebrow. "Did you catch how I conducted the interrogation?"
Pearl immediately nodded. "Got it!"
Platinum hesitated. "I… remembered about half of it."
"I didn't remember anything…" Diamond admitted honestly.
The other two turned to stare at him.
Pearl covered his face with a sigh. Knew this guy would mess it up…
Asahi, however, simply chuckled. He wasn't strict about it. "It's fine. The process itself isn't the most important thing. What truly matters is getting useful information from your enemy."
"For example, from that grunt, I just learned that Team Galactic is planning to attack Jubilife TV. Their goal is to broadcast their ideology to all of Sinnoh."
"What do you guys think about that?"
"This is the third lesson," he added.
The three fell into thought.
"Call Officer Jenny and let her handle it?" Platinum suggested first.
Asahi nodded but didn't say whether it was right or wrong. He then looked at Pearl and Diamond.
Pearl stroked his chin. "Dealing with Team Galactic is the League's responsibility. Jubilife City is close to Oreburgh City, so we could ask Roark and the Oreburgh Gym Trainers for help!"
Finally, all eyes turned to Diamond.
Munching down the rest of his ice cream cone, Diamond winced as he got brain freeze. Rubbing his head, he said, "Well, the obvious choice is to just go take care of Team Galactic ourselves!"
Hearing that, both Platinum and Pearl suddenly realized how they'd been overthinking things. They had completely forgotten about Asahi himself!
Especially Platinum—after personally witnessing Asahi take down an entire Pokémon Hunter syndicate on his own, she couldn't believe she hadn't considered the simplest solution.
She looked embarrassed.
Asahi, meanwhile, summed up their responses. "Platinum and Pearl's suggestions aren't wrong."
"I do plan on dealing with Team Galactic myself, but I'll also be contacting Officer Jenny in Jubilife and Roark in Oreburgh City."
"…But not to ask them for help fighting Team Galactic."
Diamond blinked. "Then what are we doing next?"
"We're returning our 'prisoner' to his friends, of course," Asahi replied with a grin.
---
At a Warehouse Near Jubilife TV
A squad of Team Galactic grunts stood in formation as their squad leader gave a final briefing.
"For the past week, we've gathered intel on Jubilife TV!"
"There are no Gym Trainers in Jubilife City, and Officer Jenny won't be able to stop us. Tonight is the night we seize the station and spread our message across Sinnoh and the world!"
A cheer erupted from the gathered grunts.
They were all devoted followers of Cyrus, believing in his vision of creating a 'perfect new world.' Many didn't even understand what that meant, but that didn't stop them from celebrating.
Their squad leader was pleased. He was about to continue his speech when—
"Excuse me," a voice interrupted.
The room fell silent. Every grunt turned toward the entrance.
Standing there was a young man with a Shiny Gardevoir, accompanied by a refined-looking girl and two goofy-looking guys.
And floating beside them was an unconscious Team Galactic grunt.
Asahi smiled at the gathered grunts. "I found this guy on the way here. He's one of yours, right?"
"Take him down!" the squad leader ordered without hesitation, immediately throwing out his Poké Ball.
But Asahi was faster.
Snap!
With a snap of his fingers, Gardevoir raised both hands.
A massive psychic wave flooded the warehouse.
One by one, Team Galactic grunts collapsed.
Within seconds, over thirty had fallen, leaving only about a dozen still standing.
"Huh, you guys are at least better than those useless Pokémon Hunters," Asahi commented.
The squad leader's instincts screamed danger. Gritting his teeth, he ordered, "Everyone, attack! Don't hold back!"
A Houndoom stepped in front of him, its Fire-Dark typing rendering it immune to Psychic attacks. It had resisted Gardevoir's initial wave of Psychic energy.
The remaining grunts all commanded their Pokémon to attack.
Poison Stings, Sludge Bombs, Flamethrowers—an onslaught of moves rushed toward Asahi's group.
Pearl and Diamond instinctively panicked and prepared to dodge, but Platinum stood firm. She had already witnessed Asahi's overwhelming strength.
Gardevoir telepathically asked Asahi for instructions.
Asahi shook his head. Then, he threw out a second Poké Ball.
Boom!
A Milotic emerged, its tail elegantly flicking out as a surge of water swept through the air, extinguishing the incoming Poison and Fire attacks.
The flames turned to steam, surrounding Milotic in a misty haze.
Its iridescent scales shimmered through the fog, refracting light into dazzling rainbows.
"So beautiful!" Platinum gasped. This… this is my dream Pokémon!
Meanwhile, Pearl and Diamond finally realized just how absurdly powerful their 'boss' was.
Having an elite officer like this leading them?
This was beyond cool!
Fueled by excitement, they sent out their own Pokémon to join the fight.
"Chatot, Chatter!"
A stream of flames spewed from Chatot's beak, taking down a sneaky Honchkrow.
"Munchlax, Body Slam!"
Munchlax leapt into the air and slammed down hard on a Golbat.
"Piplup, Bubble Beam!"
Plantina, now fully engaged, had Piplup unleash a flurry of bubbles at another enemy Pokémon.
---
The battle didn't last long.
A single Team Galactic squad was nothing to Asahi.
If he hadn't been using this fight to train his recruits, he could have ended it in five minutes.
Looking over the fallen grunts and the battle-worn but excited trainees, Asahi smiled.
"This is the fourth lesson," he said.
"The training is now complete."
"Next, we're going after Hunter J, Team Galactic's leader Cyrus… and the legendary Pokémon, Dialga and Palkia."
"…Huh?"
Hearing those names, the excitement drained from the trio's faces.
Team Galactic's leader? Dialga and Palkia?
They didn't know much about the latter two, but if their names came after Cyrus's, that meant they had to be even stronger.
Could they really handle something like that?!