Giovanni's Pokémon egg, which Eddie had been incubating himself, finally hatched.
The newly hatched Pokémon was an adorable little creature with a round body, four stubby legs, and a large, rounded head.
Its body was a pewter gray color, and its eyes were a light blue shade. Partial armor covered its head, feet, and back, with a single horn protruding from its spine.
This little one was quite small in stature, but surprisingly heavy. Even as a newborn, it weighed a solid sixty kilograms.
Because of this, Eddie found himself completely unable to move his feet as the little creature clung to them and rubbed against his legs affectionately.
Name: Aron
Type: Steel/Rock
Ability: Rock Head (prevents recoil damage from the user's own moves)
Level: 5
Potential: Champion-level
"I have to say, this is exactly what I'd expect from a Pokémon egg that came from Giovanni. This little one actually has Champion-level potential. That's impressive."
Eddie put away his Pokédex and couldn't help but marvel at Giovanni's generosity. The man had simply given away such a valuable Pokémon egg without hesitation.
"Coco~~~"
Aron seemed to interpret Eddie's words as praise, rubbing against his feet with even more enthusiasm.
"Alright, alright, settle down. I'll take you out for a proper walk another time."
Eddie's eye twitched slightly as he gently placed the two Metal Coats he'd been holding onto Aron's back, then returned the Steel-type to its Poké Ball.
"This little one arrived at just the right time. I'll save these two Metal Coats for now."
Eddie couldn't help but smile. This Pokémon could fit into either his third or fourth team, but since Giovanni would likely deduce that the egg had hatched into this Aron, it seemed best to assign it to team four.
"Now then, let me see what else Giovanni might have left behind."
Eddie began thoroughly searching the underground chamber, hoping to discover something useful.
As he searched, he actually found several interesting items.
Whether Giovanni had left in a hurry or simply deemed these things unnecessary, Eddie discovered numerous research reports that Team Rocket had compiled in this underground facility. Some were quite significant, such as an ancient eyewitness account of the legendary wish-granting Pokémon Jirachi, recorded by people thousands of years ago, along with various other documents.
He also found a personal handbook written by Giovanni himself, titled "Secrets of the Earth," which detailed Giovanni's training methods and techniques for Ground-type Pokémon.
This could be considered the culmination of Giovanni's knowledge on training Pokémon.
However, the handbook wasn't particularly useful to Eddie. While he did have Ground-type Pokémon on his teams, he wasn't a specialist who focused on a single type. Unlike trainers who dedicated themselves to mastering one particular type, Eddie's approach was more versatile. He had trained Pokémon of nearly every type and brought them all to exceptional levels of strength.
His primary teams, the first and second squads, covered almost every type except Bug-types.
So, this "Secrets of the Earth" handbook, which focused exclusively on Ground-type strategies, held limited value for him. Eddie simply flipped through it once before placing it back in its spot to await someone who would truly appreciate it.
"Well, these are somewhat interesting, I suppose, but only somewhat. There aren't many truly useful things here."
Eddie felt that the most valuable item he'd found was probably the eyewitness report about the legendary wish-granting Pokémon Jirachi. However, as someone who had been transported to this world with knowledge of future events, this information wasn't particularly useful to him. After all, he already knew the key details about Jirachi.
"Hmm? Are these sighting reports of Ho-Oh and Lugia? It looks like Giovanni's been searching for Silver for quite some time. What a devoted father. Though it's strange that he hasn't found them yet, considering those two are clearly in the Johto region. Why couldn't Giovanni locate them?"
As Eddie continued his search, he discovered an eyewitness report about Ho-Oh and Lugia tucked away in a corner. Unfortunately, the information was rather sparse. Since these two Pokémon hadn't appeared publicly in many years, the lack of detailed sightings made sense.
Still, Eddie found it odd that these two Legendary Pokémon were obviously somewhere in the Johto region, and Team Rocket had significant influence there as well. Yet Giovanni hadn't been able to find any solid leads. It was genuinely puzzling.
"Could it be that Team Rocket's Johto branch has been under the Masked Man's control all along? That would explain why Giovanni never received accurate information."
The more Eddie thought about it, the more plausible this theory seemed. The leaders of Team Rocket's Johto operations were Lambda One and Lambda Two, both of whom served under the Masked Man. If Giovanni had asked them to gather intelligence on Ho-Oh and Lugia, they wouldn't have shared it with him even if they'd collected it.
With this realization, Eddie couldn't help but smile slightly. Giovanni, who could orchestrate and calculate nearly everything, probably never suspected that his regional managers in Johto were actually loyal to the Masked Man, which prevented him from obtaining the information he needed.
"Well, none of this is really my concern anymore. Let's go. I'll leave everything here for Gary. He'll discover this place after he becomes the Gym Leader of Viridian City. He can have these items since they're not much use to me anyway."
Eddie shrugged, called Pikachu and Eevee back to him, and exited the underground chamber. After closing the secret room's hidden door behind him, he left the abandoned Gym.
"Little Rattata, where are you going? Don't run so fast! Wait for me!"
Eddie had just stepped out of the Gym and was about to release his Charizard to fly to Victory Road for some final training when a familiar voice reached his ears.
Hearing this, Eddie turned toward the sound and saw a Rattata scurrying toward him. Behind the small purple rodent Pokémon, a cute little girl with blonde hair was running after it, trying to keep up.
"Rata rata!"
The Rattata ran up to Eddie and began circling around him happily.
Eddie couldn't help but smile at this. He crouched down and gently stroked the Rattata's head, causing the little Pokémon to close its eyes contentedly, clearly enjoying the attention.
"You're just a Pokémon I caught on a whim and later gave to someone else. I'm surprised you still remember me. That actually makes me feel a bit guilty."
"Also, Yellow, it's quite dangerous for you to come to this area alone. Please don't do this again, okay?"
The cute little girl finally reached Eddie, looking completely out of breath. She'd clearly gotten tired from chasing Rattata all the way here.
However, when she heard Eddie's voice and finally got a clear look at his face, her expression brightened with a radiant smile.
"It's Eddie! It's been so long!"
After several months had passed, Eddie had grown stronger and more mature. Now returning to Viridian City, he encountered the girl who had cheered him on before.
However, Yellow seemed to have grown quite a bit as well. She'd been just a small child when they last met. Though still young, she was noticeably taller now. Even her youthful face had become more refined and prettier. She was growing into quite a beautiful young lady, the kind that could easily capture people's attention.
"Smack!"
"Huh? Eddie, why did you just slap yourself?"
"It's nothing. Just clearing some inappropriate thoughts from my mind. Yellow, since it's rare for us to meet like this, how about I treat you to a nice meal today?"