The underground laboratory.
A Butterfree with dazzling wings led the way, while Croagunk followed close behind.
Looker led a team of five, moving skillfully through the rocky, earthen passageways.
"The entire layout of this facility is shaped like an oval.
It's roughly divided into several sections. The area your Pokémon are guarding should be the central core of the lab.
From my initial scouting, these few sectors here are storage rooms for all sorts of experimental samples.
Over there should be a data archive—but it's empty."
Looker held a hand-drawn map, abstract in style, and explained it to the four others.
"Pretty big underground base. Team Rocket must have poured a fortune into this." Someone muttered in awe.
Constructing such a massive facility underground was no easy task, especially in the Pokémon world—where you never knew when a burrowing Pokémon might suddenly tunnel through.
Most villain organizations usually hid their bases inside hollowed-out cliffs, or buried them in deep forests and mountains.
After all, the Pokémon world was vast, and no Pokémon League could really comb through every inch of wilderness.
"They sure cleared out fast—less than an hour and they were gone." Another Trainer remarked.
"Not completely gone. At least they left plenty behind," Looker replied, halting before a massive door.
"This is where they kept the experimental specimens. Be ready."
His warning was mostly for the youngest of the four. Otherwise, he wouldn't have bothered.
"Talking to you, kid. First time seeing gene-mod experiments? Don't get scared." The other three teased.
Silas gave a shy smile.
The door swung open. Inside stood fifty or sixty capsule-like tanks.
Each tank glowed with green liquid, and within floated all manner of twisted, grotesque Pokémon.
"These guys are getting sicker by the day..." one of the men muttered under his breath.
Aside from Looker, who had already seen this, the others all looked grim.
"What exactly are they doing? This doesn't look like the kind of research needed for Dark Ball production."
"This isn't even Team Rocket's usual style."
"Seems like the League will have to reevaluate Team Rocket and their mysterious leader."
They walked deeper into the chamber, exchanging low words.
Team Rocket's goal had always been to capture rare and powerful Pokémon, using them to dominate the world.
While their schemes sometimes involved shady experiments, they were rarely on this level of grotesque.
Other villain groups had certainly done worse—but not Rocket, not like this.
Even Silas began to doubt whether this was really one of Giovanni's deliberately abandoned labs.
Normally, if Team Rocket had wanted to leave behind a decoy, they could've disguised it as a less suspicious outpost.
There was no reason to leave this.
"Gigalith!" "Grooarrr!" "Yeehh!"
Cries rang out—four Pokémon appeared before them.
"Looks like you've been getting along well." Silas grinned, patting Gigalith's rugged body.
Looker swept his gaze around the chamber and nodded slightly.
Thanks to the Pokémon guarding this place, the damage wasn't too severe.
He pulled a disk-like device from his coat and inserted it into a nearby terminal.
The screen flickered to life—three Pokémon appeared.
"Those are... the Kanto Starters?"
Everyone recognized them instantly. They were too familiar.
But unlike the usual appearance of Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle, these three Pokémon bore dark black stripes across their bodies.
"So this is the goal of Team Rocket's experiments?" The men frowned.
Silas studied the endless streams of data scrolling across the monitor and said, "If these figures are correct, then by calculation... these Pokémon would be about twenty percent stronger than their normal counterparts at the same stage."
"So... improved versions of those Dark Pokémon? Not as overwhelmingly strong because they've removed the madness and mental instability?
Are they planning to extend these Starter experiments to other Pokémon?"
The three altered Starter Pokémon on the screen made it impossible not to think back to the Dark Pokémon they'd just fought.
But Silas understood differently. The moment he saw them, he realized what this lab was truly meant for.
Mewtwo… could it already be in its early stages? he thought to himself.
If that was the case, it would explain why the strange experimental Pokémon outside looked the way they did.
Mewtwo originated from genetic research based on Mew's eyelashes and fossilized remains.
As the ancestor of all Pokémon and the one said to possess the genetic code of every species, Mew's genes were not something just any Pokémon could withstand.
Judging by Team Rocket's methods, they had likely tried to fuse Mew's genes into those Pokémon. It would be a miracle if they didn't break down.
After learning just how powerful the Legendary Pokémon of this world truly were, Silas had always struggled to understand how Team Rocket could have possibly created Mewtwo.
This wasn't even within the realm of "black technology" anymore.
So far, there had only been one successful case of creating a godlike being.
Sure enough, Giovanni really was the "main character" of this world.
"Alright, thank you for your assistance. From here on, we'll take responsibility for cleaning up this area."
Officer Jenny saluted Looker.
"Very well, thank you for your hard work." the man gave a short return salute and turned to leave.
It was already three o'clock in the afternoon.
Since the research facility's data had been uploaded to the League, the League had placed great importance on it.
They had no choice but to—something like this would eventually need to be disclosed to the public.
Those grotesque Pokémon experiments would undoubtedly spark outrage among everyone who loved Pokémon.
All tasks were now proceeding in an orderly fashion.
"The last time I visited Professor Rowan, he mentioned you to me. He said you're a very promising Trainer."
Looker walked side by side with Silas as they chatted.
Silas had only just learned that this man, born in Jubilife City of the Sinnoh region, was a childhood friend of Professor Rowan's assistant, Roseanne.
"Oh, and speaking of which, Roseanne
told me you helped her out a great deal recently."
As they talked, the man pulled out a pair of roller skates.
"This is one of my multi-purpose gadgets: the Sky Roller Skates. They'll make traveling much easier for you.
After all, not every place is suitable to reach by using Pokémon.
They're developed by the International Police, top quality. They won't have the same kinds of issues as the ones sold on the market.
Consider it a personal thank-you from me."
He handed the skates over to Silas.
"Ah—there's no need for that. I really didn't help that much." Silas tried to decline.
"Ahem, well…" The man shoved the skates into Silas's arms anyway, rubbing his hands together with an embarrassed smile.
"Oh, I see. I see." Silas, watching him act this way, nodded knowingly.
The two of them shared a quiet laugh.
"As for me, because of my assignments, I'm often moving between different regions.
Sometimes I disappear for months or even a year at a time, so I'm not always up to date on the latest news.
Professor Rowan mentioned you'd be visiting his lab often in the future, so I'll be counting on you."
Later, sitting inside Viridian City's Pokémon Center, Silas recalled his earlier conversation with the Looker and couldn't help but grin.
He never expected he would actually play the role of a matchmaker.
"Hello, please come to Conference Room Three at Viridian Pokémon Center. The League prosecutors have some questions for you."
A system message flashed on his wrist device.
Silas sighed, stood up, and headed toward the Center's meeting room.
Knock knock. "Please, come in."
Silas opened the door, nodded politely to the two prosecutor-looking individuals inside, and sat down opposite them.
"Hello, Trainer Silas. I'm League Prosecutor Miho Iruma.
This is my assistant, Takenori Shirai."
The woman who clearly had the presence of a superior took the lead in introducing herself.
Miho Iruma: Age 24, rank near-Elite Four level, ace Pokémon: Empoleon (Elite-level).
Personality: Righteous and uncompromising, believes that only strong, decisive action can deal with poachers.
Background: A rising star from a well-known family of prosecutors in the Sinnoh League.
Silas immediately recalled all the data he had reviewed about the League's most outstanding young Trainers.
"An honor to meet you," he replied simply.
The League's prosecutor division was made up of people from every region, so it wasn't surprising that someone from Sinnoh would be handling this case.
"No need for formalities. Let's get straight to the point."
Iruma Miho was brisk and efficient, turning her computer screen toward Silas.
"This is a full battle record captured by the International Police's recorder during the mission.
We summoned you mainly to confirm whether the information here concerning Katsuto Ueda is accurate."
Katsuto Ueda—that was the Trainer of the Dark Venusaur.
.....
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