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"No way, this guy is way too dangerous. Weezing, Muk, do you two honestly think you can win if you battle him?"
Harley watched Eddie systematically defeating everyone in sight, his voice trembling with fear as he asked the Pokémon that Koga had lent him. His confidence had completely evaporated.
Upon hearing this, Weezing and Muk glanced at Eddie's Pokémon tearing through the crowd of Team Rocket members. Both immediately shook their heads frantically, their movements screaming "Absolutely not! We're not going out there! No chance!"
Then they bolted.
Yes, they actually ran away!
Right before Harley's eyes, these two Pokémon—who weren't even his to begin with—completely ignored their temporary trainer and fled the scene without a second thought.
"Hey! Are you serious right now? Don't just leave me here alone! Wait for me!"
Harley watched in growing panic as the two quasi-elite level Pokémon he'd been relying on disappeared into the distance. He was already terrified, but now his panic reached new heights.
He spun around to look at Eddie and saw that the trainer was nearly finished eliminating every last Team Rocket member on the Seafoam Islands. Harley's fear overwhelmed him completely. He didn't dare stay a moment longer and immediately ran in the same direction that Weezing and Muk had escaped.
"So weak. Much weaker than I expected."
Eddie surveyed the Team Rocket members who were about to be completely defeated by his team, his tone flat with disappointment.
He had expected to encounter at least a few Gym Leader level trainers. Team Rocket was a massive organization, after all. Besides the three executives at the top, there should have been trainers of considerable strength scattered throughout their ranks.
Yet this time, there was absolutely no one. Not a single Gym Leader level opponent had appeared on his side of the battlefield. He hadn't encountered any truly strong trainers at all.
"Without any Gym Leader level Pokémon to battle, I'm gaining far less experience than I hoped. I probably won't even be able to level up a single level. These guys are just too inexperienced. Even the Peak trainers among them are mostly trainers who just recently broke through to that rank."
Eddie felt genuinely dissatisfiend with the situation. While his goal was to disrupt Team Rocket's operation, he had also hoped to use them as valuable experience for his team.
He'd thought that even gaining one or two levels would make this worthwhile. However, given the current circumstances, even his Dragonair wouldn't gain a level. Only his level 30 Dragonair would see any real improvement.
"Logically speaking, the Team Rocket leader in charge of Seafoam Islands operations should have Gym Leader level strength at minimum. After all, the work being conducted here is clearly important to their organization."
"But where is everyone? I can't even find their leader, let alone any Gym Leader level trainers. Could I have defeated him right at the start without realizing it? Is that why they're in such complete disarray?"
Eddie was genuinely puzzled now. From the moment he'd appeared on the scene until now—having swept through Team Rocket's forces—their leader had never shown themselves. As a result, the ordinary members below had fallen into chaos and been easily overwhelmed by his assault.
If there had been a leader properly commanding the Team Rocket members, Eddie would actually have needed to put in more effort to deal with this group. After all, their numbers were quite substantial.
"Ding! Dragonair gained experience! Level increased by 15! Reached level 45! Learned Dragon Tail and Aqua Tail!"
"Hm? The battle's already over? Dragonair jumped fifteen whole levels—that's actually pretty good."
After hearing the notification, Eddie redirected his attention back to the battlefield below.
The scene was absolutely devastating.
Entire groups of Team Rocket members and their Pokémon lay sprawled across the ground. Every Pokémon had fainted, and the Team Rocket members themselves were seriously injured, their cries and groans of pain filling the air.
If they weren't all still breathing, the scene could easily be described as a mountain of bodies in a sea of blood.
This clearly demonstrated that Eddie's attacks had been anything but gentle.
Regarding Team Rocket, Eddie's philosophy was simple: as long as they survived, beat them within an inch of their lives.
He didn't kill them—not because he was some kind of saint, but because there was no need. These criminals would face a far more appropriate fate: spending the rest of their broken, miserable lives rotting in prison cells.
For members of an evil organization like this, such punishment might actually be worse than a quick death.
"But I don't exactly have the authority to call the Alliance and have them arrest all these people right now."
Eddie's thoughts turned to imprisonment, which led him to think about the Pokémon League.
This was Seafoam Islands, located far from the mainland. Being so remote, the signal reception here was terrible. Even if he wanted to notify League officials to come collect these criminals, he had no way of contacting them.
"Besides, even if I could contact League personnel, I can't just wait around here for them to arrive before leaving, can I? My time is valuable. I'm not wasting it babysitting these guys."
Eddie suddenly realized the real issue. It seemed he had neither the time nor the energy to properly deal with Team Rocket's aftermath.
When he'd originally planned to come to Seafoam Islands, he'd been so focused on how to defeat the Team Rocket members stationed here that he'd completely forgotten to consider what he'd do afterward.
In fact, Eddie had subconsciously assumed that Team Rocket's forces would be strong, and that there would definitely be a competent leader stationed on Seafoam Islands. If he couldn't defeat them completely, surely they would retreat, right?
If Team Rocket fled, then Eddie wouldn't need to worry about cleanup after defeating them, right?
However, reality had proven quite different. Team Rocket's forces were indeed substantial, and their numbers exceeded Eddie's expectations. But their leader, Harley, had turned out to be an utter coward.
The moment Eddie appeared, Harley had hidden himself away, leaving the Team Rocket members in complete chaos and disarray.
While Eddie was systematically defeating their forces, Harley had been busy reporting the situation to Koga. Even after making his report, Harley hadn't dared emerge from hiding. He'd simply cowered in the shadows, watching Eddie tear through Team Rocket's ranks.
The result was that even the Pokémon Koga had lent him got scared and fled first, with Harley running away right behind them.
So after Eddie finished his sweep, he still hadn't encountered Team Rocket's leader Harley or the Gym Leader level Pokémon that should have been under his command.
"Speaking of which, this Articuno really is something else. It's still keeping itself frozen in there."
Eddie's gaze shifted to the massive block of ice standing in the center of the canyon. He'd actually noticed the Legendary Pokémon at the very beginning of the battle.
But he'd wanted to deal with Team Rocket first, so he hadn't paid much attention to Articuno during the fighting.
Now that he'd finished with Team Rocket, why was Articuno still encased in ice?
"Hey, Articuno, why are you still—"
"Ding ding ding!"
Just as Eddie walked up to the frozen Articuno and knocked on the ice, about to ask why it hadn't broken free yet, his Pokédex suddenly began beeping urgently.
"BOOM!"
Before Eddie could even pull out his Pokédex to check what the alert was about, a conspicuous column of water suddenly erupted from somewhere far across Seafoam Islands, beyond the canyon.
"Charizard! Let's go!"
Seeing this, Eddie immediately recalled all his Pokémon except Charizard. He climbed onto his partner's back and flew toward the water spout at full speed.
While flying in that direction, Eddie checked the message on his Pokédex.
Sure enough, it was from Green.
The message contained only a single short sentence:
"Gym Leader level opponents here. Come quickly!"