Without any warning, Nozomi struck, catching the two Rocket operatives disguised as sailors completely off guard.
"Ah!" "It hurts!"
Two short cries rang out. Clutching their hands, the two Rockets watched in shock as two Rocket-Team Poké Balls clattered to the deck.
"Damn it!"
Seeing their Poké Balls fall, the two operatives felt dread deep in their bones. If they lost their Pokémon, they wouldn't stand a chance. They both reached to pick them up—but Nozomi would never let them do so.
Before their hands could grasp the balls, a Gastly drifted into view mid-air, cackling. It opened its mouth and exhaled a cloud of toxic gas forward.
"Heh heh!"
The two Rocket members clutched their throats, straining for air—veins turning purple, eyes rolling back. They convulsed helplessly and crumpled to the ground, victims of the poison.
Nozomi swept his gaze across the surroundings. Finding no other enemies, he made a "safe" gesture to Lorelei, and moved toward the main door.
Lorelei, seeing this, summoned her Kabuto to guard at her side, then released Jynx, who set up an invisible wall in the corridor. She picked up her communicator and called in to the league's prosecutorial support team.
"This is Lorelei. All units, level-one readiness. Be prepared to engage at any moment."
While Lorelei coordinated backup, Nozomi had already slipped into the warehouse. He had not tried to cloak his presence earlier—by now, the Rocket members inside must have known he had arrived.
He proceeded cautiously: Metagross in front clearing the path, Ivysaur and Leafeon flanking left and right, and Gastly bringing up the rear.
Some might say he was overcautious, but when facing Team Rocket, you can never be too careful. And here, in Rocket's own territory, you never know what tricks they have hidden in the shadows.
The warehouse was immense and eerily silent. There were no signs of Rocket operatives. Rows of shipping containers filled the space—Nozomi counted no fewer than twenty.
The scale of the Poké Ball production line was enormous. It seemed Rocket had chartered the entire cargo hold just for transporting it.
"That's quite a grand gambit," Nozomi murmured under his breath.
But it made sense. If the shipment were small, they could transfer it portside in Vermilion City. It was precisely because the containers were so many—and too conspicuous to pass customs—that Rocket had orchestrated this hijacking of the S.S. Anne.
As Nozomi mentally parsed the cause and effect of the Rocket hijack, he suddenly caught the faint sound of footsteps nearby.
Without hesitation, he called out, "Metagross, Light Screen!"
In an instant, before the words left his mouth, a translucent wall materialized at his side, shielding Nozomi as a jet of flame shot toward him—blocked by the glowing barrier.
As the flame dissipated, a snarling Houndoom appeared before Nozomi, teeth bared, issuing a low, threatening growl. It wasn't unusual for Rocket to employ a Houndoom—after all, if they could smuggle a Poké Ball factory from the Kalos region, obtaining a Houndoom was no great stretch.
What puzzled Nozomi, though, was the absence of any Rocket trainer in sight.
"Creeping in shadows, hiding your face…" Nozomi sneered inwardly at those who wouldn't even show themselves in direct fight.
From this, he gleaned a few insights:
His earlier assumption had been wrong—Rocket's numbers in the warehouse were far smaller than he'd imagined. If there were many, they would never have let people barge in on them so meekly.
Rocket likely didn't expect someone to breach the cargo hold so swiftly, so most of their personnel remained onboard controlling the ship or deployed in the banquet hall.
They were deliberately concealing themselves, probably to buy time for reinforcements to arrive.
That was actually good news for Nozomi: he could resolve this skirmish quickly and lure the Rocket forces into traps around the production line. By striking decisively, he could seize the initiative.
He only needed to flush them out — he had no intention of playing hide-and-seek.
With that in mind, Nozomi focused on the Houndoom before him.
Though Rocket's numbers were few, their choice of Pokémon clearly aimed to counter his lineup. The Houndoom was exactly the kind of answer to his Metagross and Ivysaur/Leafeon—Psychic/Steel moves wouldn't affect the Dark-typed Houndoom, and it would threaten his Grass types with fire attacks.
To an ordinary trainer, this might pose a serious problem. For Nozomi, it was merely a minor hurdle.
"Metagross, Metal Claw!"
If Psychic won't work, switch to Steel. And while Steel is weak to Fire, as long as they didn't get hit, all would be fine.
A cold blue light flickered in Metagross's eyes—the four cores in its brain whirred at high speed.
Agility!
The massive body blurred in midair, reappearing behind the Houndoom, delivering a claw strike.
Houndoom seemed taken aback—how could that heavy Metagross move so quickly? It froze in place.
"Dodge, Houndoom!"
A hidden Rocket operative shouted in a panic when they saw Houndoom about to be struck.
"I've got you now!"
Seizing the moment the Rockets revealed themselves, Nozomi's eyes gleamed sharply. With a swift flick of his wrist, he launched a Poké Ball toward the direction of the voice.
"Steelix, Iron Head!"
Boom!
Steelix crashed into the hold, sending tremors through the entire cabin.
It barreled ahead, toppling two cargo containers in its path. Several Rocket members hiding behind the containers were exposed in Nozomi's sightline.
At the same moment, Metagross abandoned its Metal Claw stance and closed in on Houndoom, delivering a bullet-like punch.
Bang!
The punch struck Houndoom's abdomen, sending it flying into the startled Rocket trainers in front of them.
"Hello there."
Nozomi smiled as he addressed the few trainers. Steelix likewise gave a menacing grin.
"Damn it…"
The trainers under Steelix's gaze looked at the incapacitated Houndoom, then at the massive Steelix. Their faces drained of color, their limbs shaking.
In that moment, only these three words echoed in their minds:
"We're done for..."