"Cotton~"
Cottonee's light, fluffy body swayed slightly, as if trying to express that such a thing wasn't easy to control.
Prankster was considered a passive ability. From Maki's original perspective, without the game's restriction of Prankster being ineffective against Dark-type Pokémon, it was nearly a perfect Ability.
Yes, Maki had specifically tested this in a previous Team Rocket experiment. The restriction imposed by Game Freak to curb Prankster's power didn't exist in this real-world Pokémon universe.
In any case, that was a good thing. Speaking of which, if it weren't for Thundurus, Prankster might never have been nerfed in the first place.
"Keep at it; this is something you'll have to figure out on your own." Maki shrugged. He would have liked to help Cottonee train, but that wasn't really possible.
Charmeleon, being a Fire-type, wasn't much help either. Although Cottonee had just used Fire-type energy absorbed from sunlight, this method of producing Ember was nearly impossible to apply in battle.
This was because the energy had to be consciously absorbed by Cottonee, which somewhat went against the essence of Nature Power—drawing upon whatever elemental energy was most abundant in the environment. As a result, this method was actually slower than using a conventional move.
Maki trained with Cottonee for quite some time, but storing Fire-type energy within its body even temporarily remained difficult. As night began to fall, they had no choice but to put the training on hold.
On the other hand, Mawile and Charmeleon were making better progress. Possibly due to already knowing Bite, Mawile was picking up Crunch quite quickly.
Because of that, Charmeleon had spent most of the session teaching Mawile, leaving little progress on its Thunder Punch training.
In truth, Maki was somewhat conflicted about whether Charmeleon should even learn Thunder Punch. In a way, it was a situational move—not particularly necessary, but not exactly useless either.
But since they had free time, learning it wouldn't hurt.
After that, Maki led his Pokémon to get some food. He had to admit—Mohn's cooking skills were decent. Though the lack of seasoning made it a bit hard for Maki to get used to, the fact that Mohn could cook at this level was impressive.
Besides, Mohn had been a professor before. Compared to Professor Oak and the others, Mohn's cooking skills were probably not much better.
Most likely, his current skills had been forced out of necessity after ending up here.
Fortunately, Maki still had a sleeping bag in his pack. Though Mohn had started building a wooden cabin for him, it would take some time to complete.
"Hah~ Feels just like camping in the wild."
Bidding his Pokémon good night, Maki settled in for his first night in this place.
...
Mt. Moon, Kanto Region.
"Was this place always here in Mt. Moon?"
Hovering in midair, Giovanni gazed down at the valley below, his brow furrowing slightly. As far as he could recall, there shouldn't have been such a location within Mt. Moon. Otherwise, there was no reason it would have gone unnoticed.
"No, at least, no one has ever discovered it before."
A fellow Team Rocket member, standing atop a Crobat, lowered his head and replied.
"This kind of place shouldn't have gone unnoticed… unless— Let's go check it out."
A flicker of doubt crossed Giovanni's gaze, and he gave a command to his Pidgeot.
"Yes, sir!"
The other Team Rocket members followed without hesitation, though a question lingered in their minds—why had Giovanni come here in the first place?
The collapse at Mt. Moon was a big deal, but it had nothing to do with Team Rocket. If he wanted to investigate, he could have simply sent a few grunts.
Despite their curiosity, none of them voiced their thoughts. The smart ones survived longer. And to have lasted this long in Team Rocket, none of them were fools.
Riding on Pidgeot, Giovanni swiftly descended into the valley.
The area had undergone massive changes since Maki was last here. Countless collapsed rocks had nearly buried the entire altar. Combined with Celesteela's destruction, even Giovanni needed to take a moment to assess the damage.
"These marks are fresh."
The battle traces were too obvious. From his experience, Giovanni could immediately tell that the fight had occurred within the past three days—coinciding with the timeframe of Maki's disappearance.
"Hmm? Do you hear that?"
"Probably wild Pokémon?"
"No, we should check it out—there could be survivors."
Not long after Giovanni and his men landed, voices of League rescue workers echoed from a distance.
The collapse of Mt. Moon had happened at the worst possible time—right during peak visitor traffic. A large number of tourists had been injured, and many were still trapped inside, unable to escape.
Upon receiving word of the incident, the Pokémon League had immediately dispatched a rescue team to search for survivors.
Hearing the voices, several of the Team Rocket grunts instinctively glanced at Giovanni, seemingly awaiting orders—should they knock them out or eliminate them entirely?
However, Giovanni remained silent as he retrieved a Poké Ball. A brief flash of light revealed an Alakazam before them.
"Alaka~"
Without needing a command, Alakazam gave a slight wave of its spoon. Instantly, the approaching League members' eyes glazed over, and they turned around, walking away without resistance.
"Don't cause unnecessary trouble. We're here for another reason."
Giovanni spoke calmly. If this had been any other time, he wouldn't have minded having his subordinates take care of the approaching nuisances. But this involved Maki—he didn't want to attract the League's attention.
"Search the area thoroughly. If you find any obvious battle traces—like claw marks—report to me immediately. But stay discreet. Also, the League has apparently sent an Elite Four member here, so be extra careful."
"Yes, sir!"
Kneeling in unison, the Team Rocket members responded before vanishing into the darkness.
"What kind of Pokémon did Dragonite fight against?"
With his men gone, Giovanni furrowed his brows again. Judging solely by the battle traces around him, he couldn't determine what kind of Pokémon had caused them.
Or rather—whatever had left these marks wasn't something Giovanni recognized.
"Magnezone? No… There's no way such a powerful Magnezone would appear in an environment like Mt. Moon. And if this were just an ordinary battle, Dragonite shouldn't have gone missing for this long."
-----------------------
Want to read ahead of schedule?
Join here for advance chapters: PATREON.COM / PRIMALDEMON