Before arriving at LaRousse Town, Harrison had been considering something.
Simply using Pryce's identity as the Masked Man as a bargaining chip felt like it didn't pose enough of a threat.
After all, Pryce had two cards in his hand: Zoroa and his own identity.
Having only one card, Harrison was clearly at a disadvantage.
Well then, since you caught my partner, I'll catch yours.
Wouldn't that even things out?
Moreover, even if Harrison revealed Pryce's true identity, he felt it wouldn't pose much of a threat to Pryce.
He could completely continue to capture Celebi while being wanted by the League, as it seemed no one within the League could stop Pryce.
Peak Lance + peak Leon might have a chance.
But that's really not possible now.
Even if Pryce's identity was exposed, the result would at most be that his actions might not be as efficient as before.
And the League might not even want to put Pryce on the wanted list.
Didn't the League still lick his face and let him be the Gym Leader of LaRousse Town after Pryce's misdeeds in the original story were exposed?
It could only be said that people with strong strength really have privileges.
It felt like of the three giants in the manga, Pryce, Giovanni, and Lance,
Pryce and Lance had both committed major crimes.
But in the end, the League chose to turn a blind eye and let them go back to being Gym Leader and League Champion.
Only Giovanni was really wanted by the League all the way.
Because only the protagonist group and a few people knew about the things Pryce and Lance did, as long as they didn't spread the word, wouldn't ordinary people know nothing?
And Giovanni and his Team Rocket did too many things, even if the League wanted to recruit Giovanni to help him clear his name, they couldn't.
Finally, after thinking it over, the thing that could threaten Pryce the most was that Lapras named 'Glacier'.
After all, the ultimate goal of Pryce doing so many things wasn't just to reunite it with its deceased parents?
Boom!
On the opposite side, a beam of Ice Beam blasted open the collapsed ruins of the LaRousse Gym.
Like Aokiji's Ice Age, it paved a path on the ground.
Pryce, holding that Mamoswine that looked like a Kyurem in disguise, slowly emerged from the cold air in a wheelchair.
No longer able to maintain his previous kind old grandfather persona, his expression changed from Hiruzen Sarutobi to Danzo Shimura, glaring at Harrison and gnashing his teeth, he said:
"Give me back Glacier!"
"That won't do."
Harrison threw the Poké Ball containing Lapras to Bewear.
Bewear's two big hands held the Poké Ball in its palm, feeling like with a little force, it could crush the Poké Ball along with the Lapras inside!
Pryce's face was as blue as a Namekian, and he suppressed his anger and said in a deep voice:
"You came for that Zoroa, right? She's locked in the basement of the Gym, come with me to get her."
As a Master-level trainer, Pryce also guessed what trick Harrison used, but those were not important.
The key was to get Glacier back.
"Do you think I'm stupid, old man?"
Harrison smiled:
"What idiot would go deep into enemy territory alone?"
Pryce's right hand gripped the handle of the wheelchair, and the veins on the back of his thin hand popped out, "Then what do you want?"
"Three days later, Viridian Gym in Kanto, we'll trade there."
Harrison raised his right hand and held up three fingers.
Erika slightly turned her head.
Choosing the place of trade in Giovanni's territory?
The two were thoughtful, and soon they understood Harrison's reasons for doing so.
"Hmph, even if the entire Team Rocket comes, I won't take them seriously."
Pryce sneered.
He could naturally guess Harrison's plan.
Setting the place of trade in Team Rocket's lair was to use Team Rocket's military force to encircle and suppress him.
Mamoswine, Delibird, Ho-Oh.
For himself with the three legendary in hand, the entire Indigo League together would put some pressure on him.
Team Rocket?
Heh!
"Viridian Gym is located in the center of Viridian City, old man, if you want to fight there, you better pay attention to the impact."
Harrison reminded.
Viridian City was already a leading big city in the Kanto region, and Viridian Gym was built in the city center.
With the slightest movement, the police force led by Officer Jenny could arrive within five minutes.
Harrison didn't want to fight Pryce head-on, he just wanted to make Pryce have some scruples.
Moreover, with Glacier as a bargaining chip, Pryce must be furious now, if he had Saiyan blood, he would probably have transformed.
Harrison couldn't guarantee that after the two exchanged Pokémon, Pryce would not backhand give himself a Blizzard with Mamoswine.
In order to prevent this from happening, Harrison felt it necessary to change the place of trade to his own territory.
"An overly cautious kid."
Pryce glared at Harrison fiercely.
"Where, trading with an old man with such a powerful strength and unstable spirit, you always have to leave some backup."
Harrison said with a smile.
"Hey! What happened!?"
At this time, a girl's shout came from the direction of the town.
It's Clair!
Although the LaRousse Gym was built on the edge of the town away from the city.
But causing such a big commotion would naturally attract the attention of the townspeople.
"Then old man, see you in three days."
Harrison left the last sentence and waved goodbye to Pryce, then quickly took Erika and Kazuya to leave by a small road.
Pryce remained silent with a dark face.
A dignified Master-level trainer was actually pecked in the eye by a kid's trick.
It was certainly infuriating for Glacier to be taken away, but he wasn't that worried.
Because Pryce believed that with Harrison's intelligence, he wouldn't dare to do anything to Glacier.
Otherwise, he would face his endless revenge.
The key was that without the bargaining chips of Zoroa and his true face, how could he get Harrison to do things for him?
Just as Pryce lowered his head in thought, many LaRousse townspeople headed by Clair had arrived.
Seeing the LaRousse Gym turned into ruins, Clair was so frightened that her eyeballs almost fell out.
"This, this... Old, Old man, this, what's going on?"
Clair was completely dumbfounded.
She had only left for less than an hour, how did the Gym become like this?!
Pryce raised his head again, the actor mode was turned on, and he changed back to the Hiruzen Sarutobi mode, with a heartbroken expression, he stamped his feet and said:
"It's Shadow Triad! After you left, Clair, the Shadow Triad attacked the Gym, alas... I'm really old, I actually watched them destroy the Gym like this."
Harrison was a member of Team Rocket, and he was going to trade with them later.
After thinking about it, Pryce felt that the blame should be put on the criminal organization Shadow Triad in the Johto region.
"Damn Shadow Triad! Daring to attack the League Gym in broad daylight!"
Clair stomped her feet in exasperation, then comforted Pryce:
"Old man, don't worry, I'll immediately notify Mr. Chairman, they must pay the price!"
Pryce nodded with a "grateful" expression, "Thank you, alas... the Gym is gone, I have nothing to do recently, please help me ask Chairman Goodshow for leave, old man, I want to go out and relax during the Gym's reconstruction."
……
……
"Harrison, after the trade is completed, will that Pryce retaliate against us?"
After leaving LaRousse Town, recalling the power shown by Pryce's Mamoswine just now, Kazuya couldn't help but shudder.
"Look at your cowardly appearance."
Erika said with contempt.
"Aren't you afraid?"
Kazuya retorted.
This time Erika rarely didn't retort.
Indeed, Pryce's power was too terrifying.
Now the three of them had the bargaining chip of Lapras, Pryce didn't dare to act rashly.
Then what about after returning it in three days?
"There shouldn't be so much to worry about."
Harrison, who was walking in the front, suddenly spoke.
The two heard the words and looked at Harrison together.
Harrison looked sideways at the two, "Tell me, why did he catch Joker in Ilex Forest before?"
Kazuya spread his hands, "I'm not the guy's蛔虫, how would I know?"
Erika pondered slightly, then speculated: "I'm afraid he has some difficulties that need to use Joker, it shouldn't be something that can be solved by strength alone, after all, with his strength, things that can be solved by brute force are not called things at all... In this case... Um!?"
Erika immediately grasped the key to the problem.
"That's right, what he wants is my mind and technology, very similar to the situation with Uncle Giovanni."
The reason why Giovanni cultivated Harrison at the beginning was because he valued his mind, and the current Pryce was also like this.
However, compared to Giovanni's gentle means of wooing Harrison with reason and emotion, Pryce was much more swift and decisive.
Wooing my ass, I'll just kidnap you directly!
But in any case, as long as Pryce hadn't broken through that problem, he wouldn't easily attack Harrison.
After all, he was still thinking about letting the other party help him solve the problem.
"Harrison, are you going to help that Pryce? I don't like him very much, he feels like an old阴比..."
Kazuya whispered.
Harrison was also not a person who liked to be threatened.
Harrison didn't like Pryce's tough recruitment methods very much.
But if he refused, he would likely face the other party's endless harassment.
Which also made Harrison very annoyed, but he temporarily didn't find a foolproof plan to deal with Pryce.
"Let's take it one step at a time, let's go back to Cianwood City first."
Harrison finally decided.
Destroy all the experimental materials left in Cianwood City without leaving any evidence.
Then go to Viridian City to trade with Pryce.
After that, see if he should go back to Alola or what.
……
That night, the three of Harrison returned to Cianwood City from LaRousse Town.
Just as they were preparing to return to the beach hut, Kazuya suddenly pointed to the right, "Hey, what's going on there?"
Harrison and Erika turned their heads to look.
They saw that the western outbound road of Cianwood City was blocked by roadblocks.
Traffic police stood at the entrance and waved indicator lights and shouted:
"The western outbound road is temporarily closed, please take the east road if you want to leave the city."
"The road is closed? What's the situation?"
Kazuya asked curiously.
Erika thought for a while and said:
"Cianwood City is already the westernmost city in the Johto region, further west... there is only the Safari Zone."
The Safari Zone is also known as the "Hunting Zone".
It is inhabited by a large number of wild Pokémon, but it is contracted by artificial management.
After paying a certain amount of money, trainers will get a certain number of "Safari Balls" from the operator, and are allowed to randomly capture Pokémon in this area within a certain period of time.
But often it is not allowed to use Pokémon battles to capture, you can only use food to lure or other gentle methods.
"Could it be that some rare Pokémon has been discovered?!"
Kazuya rubbed his hands excitedly.
Rumors of discovering rare Pokémon often come from the safari zones in various regions.
For example, in the Kanto safari zone, there were rumors of Dratini appearing.
Now the League is blocking the road to the safari zone, does it mean that they have discovered some Pokémon that is even rarer than Dratini?
In order not to be captured by trainers, so they deliberately blocked the road?
"Could it be Tyranitar?"
Kazuya guessed.
"It shouldn't be."
Harrison shook his head, although he didn't know why the League blocked the road.
But if it was really because some rare Pokémon appeared, and the road was blocked to prevent it from being captured by other trainers.
It would be a bit of an overreaction to go to such lengths just for Pokémon like Tyranitar.
Pseudo-legendary are rare, but they are not worth the League making such a fuss.
"I like to dig up other people's secrets the most."
Kazuya took out his combat suit wristband with great interest.
"I'll go take a look, what about you? Together?"
Erika was about to answer that she was not interested, and was preparing to go back to the house with Harrison, but Harrison spoke first:
"Erika, you should go take a look too, if it's really some rare Pokémon, it would be great if you could capture it."
Going to Unova before was to capture Zoroa to replenish Erika's combat power.
But plans can't keep up with changes, Zoroa was eventually captured by himself.
As a result, Erika's main force still only has three Pokémon.
If the League's road closure is really because they discovered some rare精灵, then it would be most appropriate for Erika to capture it.
What if it's a legendary精灵?
Although Johto doesn't seem to have any Dark-type legends, it's hard to say that it's from other regions.
Just like Celebi is considered a legend of Johto in the original pokedex, but in fact, this onion head is like Mew, likes to run around.
"Um!"
Erika also felt it made sense after listening.
"Decided? Then we will..."
Kazuya was about to remind Erika to act, but was interrupted by Erika halfway through:
"Then Harrison, let's go, Kazuya, I'll leave the destruction of the data to you."
"Ah?"
Kazuya didn't react for a while.
"What are you ah-ing, although your brain is not very good, but this little thing is no problem, right?"
Erika said unhappily.
Saying that, Erika put on her wristband and entered stealth mode, only her voice entered the ears of the two:
"Harrison, let's go."
Harrison patted Kazuya on the shoulder, "I'll leave it to you."
Looking at the figures of the two disappearing one after another, Kazuya cursed "dog men and women" in secret, then returned to the former base of the three in despair.
……
……
With the ability of the stealth combat suit, Harrison and Erika easily avoided the inspection of the traffic police blocking the city entrance.
But the further they went, the more they realized the unusualness of the situation.
There were too many people.
It would not be an exaggeration to describe it as three steps one post, five steps one sentry.
What exactly happened that warranted the Alliance mobilizing such an exaggerated force?
"Asheng, to the right..."
Suddenly, Rika, who was in stealth mode, tugged at Su Sheng's sleeve, signaling him to look to the right.
Su Sheng turned his head to look.
He saw a man who looked to be in his late twenties, maybe not even thirty, with his arms crossed, seriously patrolling the surroundings, and saying to the other security guards around him:
"Are you sure no one is leaving the city?"
A security guard responded, "Please rest assured, Mr. Senri, not even a fly can get in!"
The man, called "Senri" by the security guard, nodded and then pointed to the sky.
Above the night sky, many security guards were patrolling at high altitude on Flying-type Pokémon such as Pidgeot and Crobat.
Senri shouted, "Airborne units, pay attention too! If any trainers approach riding Flying-type Pokémon, stop them immediately!"
"Yes!"
The members of the high-altitude patrol team responded in unison.
"I remember who this person is."
Rika whispered:
"Senri, the champion of the last Silver Conference. Although he is from Johto, it is said that he has been poached by the Hoenn Alliance to be a Gym Leader in the Hoenn region. Why is he back again?"
"His responsibility in this operation seems to be security... Be careful, let's keep moving."
Su Sheng and Rika tiptoed and walked past Senri without making a sound.
Fortunately, they didn't attract any attention.
However, as soon as they passed Senri, the two immediately discovered something even more shocking—
A large number of trainers wearing Devon Corporation LOGO uniforms and fully armed were encircling a tall tower on Route 47.
"This is... the Burial Tower."
Rika frowned and said:
"No one knows what this tower is for. It seems that this tower has existed for a long time, but because nothing special has been discovered, it has gradually become abandoned..."
"Project Capture Rayquaza, begin!"
As soon as Rika finished speaking, they heard a middle-aged man shout from the entrance of the Burial Tower.
"Yes! President Stone!"
Nearly a hundred elite trainers surrounding the Burial Tower responded in unison.
Hearing the words "President Stone," Rika's expression changed again.
Stone... President, could it be the richest man in the Hoenn region, President of Devon Corporation, Steven Stone?!
Before Rika could get closer to observe, those fully armed Alliance trainers had already taken action.
The first row of people took the lead in throwing out Poké Balls, sending out Water-type Pokémon such as Slowbro, Swampert, and Politoed.
"Surf!"
Twenty or thirty Water-type Pokémon launched an attack first, releasing a monstrous tsunami at the Burial Tower.
The super surf combined directly engulfed the Burial Tower.
"Roar—!"
An angry dragon's roar rose.
A emerald green flying dragon, full of anger, rushed out of one end of the Burial Tower, roaring sternly at the humans below, braving the tsunami.
Rayquaza!!!
Rika now understood why the Alliance went to the trouble of closing the road and prohibiting outsiders from coming here.
Rayquaza, the legendary Pokémon of Hoenn, certainly had the qualifications!
"Second Squad!"
Steven Stone, who was in charge of commanding, shouted.
Dozens more trainers stepped forward in unison, releasing Electric-type Pokémon such as Raichu, Ampharos, and Manectric.
"Thunder Wave!"
"Thunderbolt!"
"Spark!"
Dozens of Electric-type moves swarmed up.
Instantly binding Rayquaza, who was still covered in water.
"I see, first give Rayquaza a water buff, and then use the principle of water conducting electricity to put the Sky Dragon into a paralyzed state. What a plan."
Su Sheng analyzed secretly from behind.
"Roar!!!"
Rayquaza, whose body was filled with electric arcs and was in a paralyzed state, became even more angry, and a destructive dragon energy soared into the sky, spitting out purple-blue aura shockwaves.
More than a dozen Water-type and Electric-type Pokémon standing in the front were attacked and lost their ability to fight on the spot.
That was Dragon Pulse!
Steven Stone was shocked by Rayquaza's power, and a drop of cold sweat dripped from his head, but he did not lose his composure and shouted:
"Third Squad, move out!"
The last dozens of trainers summoned Weavile, Mamoswine, and Glalie and other Ice-type Pokémon.
"Ice Beam!"
"Blizzard!"
"Ice Spinner!"
Ice-type moves, which Dragon-types hate the most, were fired in succession.
The intense cold shock wave hit the Sky Dragon's body. In an instant, even the earth and the surrounding trees were covered with a layer of frost.
And at this moment, a figure appeared in a hole in the Burial Tower that Rayquaza had just crashed out of.
To be honest, I'm a bit conflicted about whether to let Haruka appear or Sapphire appear. I feel like these two can't be resolved in the same brotherly way as Red and Satoshi. Readers, if you have any ideas, you can also share them. Anyway, there's still some time for the Hoenn plot.
