Sensing Giovanni's killing intent, Vicious swallowed hard.
Then he noticed Grey standing in front, with Sabrina and Lt. Surge beside him.
The moment those four appeared, Vicious didn't even know what to say.
How did four completely unrelated people end up together like this?
Pick any one of them and it would already be a nightmare for him.
And on top of that… one of them was literally his boss.
"Oh? Lt. Surge is here too?"
Zinzolin narrowed his eyes, leaning on his cane as he slowly stepped forward, focusing all his attention on Grey.
He couldn't help it—out of the four Gym Leaders, Grey's presence stood out the most.
"Vicious, and the other three… who are they?"
"Same as Lt. Surge. The other three are Kanto Gym Leaders too." Vicious answered carefully. "They're strong. Not easy to deal with…"
Vicious didn't dare expose Giovanni's identity.
If Giovanni was "just" a Gym Leader—meaning he hadn't revealed who he really was—then at most Vicious would get tossed into jail.
After that, they could find a chance to fish him out, and even pad the League's stats while they were at it.
The more arrests, the easier it was to "prove" they had nothing to do with Team Rocket.
But if Vicious revealed Giovanni's true identity…
He might be declared dead the next day as a "suicide," with the official cause listed as something like:
"Body pierced from behind by a Beedrill's stinger."
"So they're only normal Gym-level Trainers, then?"
Zinzolin latched onto the key point.
He didn't know how strong Kanto Gyms really were. And he'd heard Kanto was running some kind of "Gym Leader Tournament" lately.
So he assumed it worked like Unova: the people in front of him were probably just a bunch of ordinary Gym Leaders at roughly the same level.
As for Lt. Surge?
Zinzolin estimated he was around the "Elite Four gatekeeper" level.
In that case, with one of them being a weaker Elite Four tier and the other being a strong Gym Leader, maybe the two of them could still fight four.
"Not quite."
Vicious leaned closer to Zinzolin and subtly pointed at Sabrina. "See that one?"
"I see her. Who is she?"
Zinzolin's squinted eyes opened a little as he stared at Sabrina.
"I don't know her exact strength," Vicious said, swallowing again, forcing his voice as low as he could. "But she's around strong Elite Four level…"
He was terrified Sabrina would get annoyed and turn them into dolls on the spot.
That was Sabrina—her reputation in Kanto was on par with Lorelei of the Elite Four.
The only issue was her personality was… weird.
"???"
Zinzolin's mouth fell open. He didn't even have the will to resist anymore.
He thought it was four ordinary Gym Leaders.
And it turned out it was four Elite Four–level Trainers?!
How were you supposed to fight that?
Could you even win?
Forget it—just surrender!
"So, um… this is all a misunderstanding!"
Vicious raised both hands, then flicked a glance at Zinzolin—and suddenly exploded into action.
"Tyranitar, grab this old bastard for me!"
Zinzolin: ???
Zinzolin's brain went blank the moment he heard the order.
What did he mean, "grab this old bastard"?!
Wasn't Team Rocket the one who called them here in the first place?
So why were they kidnapping him now?!
"This is how Team Rocket does business?!"
Zinzolin was so furious his white beard trembled. He slammed his cane into the ground.
"Aren't you afraid our king from Team Plasma will come to Kanto personally to demand an explanation?"
He hadn't traveled all the way from Unova just to get stabbed in the back by Team Rocket!
"This is Kanto! Even if you brought a Hydreigon from Unova, you'd still have to coil up and behave here! Even if it's an Incineroar from Alola, it'd have to lie down for Team Rocket!"
With Vicious shouting, Tyranitar snatched Zinzolin up in one swift motion.
It happened so fast Zinzolin didn't even get a chance to throw a Poké Ball.
"Vicious! When I get back, I'm reporting this!"
Zinzolin was genuinely enraged. He came to Kanto and didn't even do anything—and the Team Rocket executive who invited him here immediately backstabbed him.
If someone didn't know better, they'd think Team Rocket had partnered with the League and was running a scam on other regions' organizations.
Catch one, bag one—every time.
"Go ahead, report it!" Vicious snorted. "If you've got the guts, bring your Team Plasma king over! I'll be waiting for him in the Indigo Plateau prison when he shows up!"
Vicious huffed out two white puffs through his nose.
Then, facing Grey and the others, he instantly changed his attitude. He rubbed his hands together and smiled awkwardly.
"Everyone, let's talk this out. No need to fight, okay? I swear I won't do anything wrong. Just call Officer Jenny over and we're good!"
Vicious really knew how to read the room. After Tyranitar had Zinzolin locked down and helpless, Vicious even crouched with his hands on his head.
All the Poké Balls on his belt were locked, and he kicked them over toward Grey himself.
Honestly, it was… impressive.
He gave off the vibe of someone who visited the police station regularly.
Like this wasn't his first time doing it.
"Alright," Grey said, sending out Annihilape to keep watch. Then he looked at Silver, brushed the dust off him, and asked, "Tell me what happened."
"It went like this, and like that."
Silver gave a clear, concise summary of everything, then handed the recovered document pouch to Grey.
"That's the whole thing."
"Got it. So that's what happened."
Grey pieced the story together. Then he turned back to Vicious, casually shaking the pouch as he asked, "So tell me—why was Team Rocket stealing this?"
"This is an important Silph Co. document," Vicious said earnestly, spilling everything he knew. "We wanted to see if we could develop one of their recent secret Poké Balls ourselves…"
Of course, anything he was allowed to know probably wasn't truly important intel.
After all, he was just an ordinary executive, not some top-tier Team Rocket commander.
So whatever—he'd say it. The boss surely wouldn't blame him.
"A Pokémon-poaching organization trying to develop Poké Balls?" Grey muttered. "Did the sun rise in the west today?"
After complaining, Grey called the Saffron City police station.
Before long, Officer Jenny arrived with a group of cops.
"Gym Leader Grey, Gym Leader Sabrina, Gym Leader Lt. Surge, and Gym Leader Giovanni—thank you for your contribution to Saffron City's efforts to crack down on Team Rocket."
Seeing the four of them standing there, Officer Jenny hurried over to express her gratitude.
This time it wasn't just a Team Rocket executive—they'd also captured one of Team Plasma's Seven Sages.
"Officer Jenny," Grey asked, "what are you going to do with this Team Plasma sage?"
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