The Pokémon hunters finally realized that Nozomi wasn't an ordinary Trainer.
But by then, it was already too late.
The moment Dragonite appeared, it spotted the severely wounded Dragonair in the distance. Then its eyes swept toward the surrounding hunters. In an instant, it understood what had happened—its expression turned to fury.
As a rare pseudo-legendary Pokémon, Dragonite was deeply protective of its own kind. Seeing Dragonair hurt was something it could not forgive. Without hesitation, it roared and charged forward.
"Rooaaar!!"
Dragonite bellowed at the hunters, opening its jaws to unleash a Dragon Pulse.
"Not good—dodge!"
The Pokémon hunters panicked and scattered in all directions.
But Dragonite's attack came too fast. They had no time to evade.
Boom!
A nearby aircraft was struck head-on by the Dragon Pulse, exploding instantly.
The blast wave sent the hunters flying, slamming them into the ground with pained groans.
Seeing Dragonite topple an aircraft in a single blow, the trench-coat man felt his scalp go numb. His fear of both Dragonite and Nozomi reached its peak.
He wanted nothing more than to run—but he couldn't bring himself to abandon the organization he had spent ten long years building.
He had invested everything to create this bounty hunter network, spending a fortune on the most advanced aircraft money could buy. How could he just flee and leave it all behind?And worse, the wild Pokémon they had captured today in the Safari Zone were still here. If he ran now, he'd lose everything!
"Battle unit—attack that Dragonite!"
The trench-coat man's voice turned vicious.
"Use the Hunter Missiles!"
At his command, the bounty hunters suddenly remembered their secret weapon—something they had forgotten in their panic after witnessing Dragonite's terrifying power.
They each grabbed rocket-launcher-like devices from the side.
Thoom! Thoom! Thoom!
In an instant, more than ten black rockets were fired at Dragonite.
Dragonite didn't know what they were, but instinctively, it flapped its wings hard and soared upward to avoid them.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Most of the rockets missed and slammed into the cliffside.
But one struck the tip of Dragonite's tail.
The warhead detached the moment of impact, revealing a strange device that released a white flash of light radiating freezing cold.
Part of Dragonite's tail was instantly encased in ice.
It cried out in pain and smashed the device to pieces with a furious swing before it could inflict further harm.
"What is that...?" Nozomi frowned.
Just one rocket had caused that much damage. He could only imagine the result if all ten had hit their mark.
"See that? That's the power of technology!" the trench-coat man shouted with a manic laugh from afar.
"The power of technology?"
Nozomi sneered. "That's what you call technology? Looks more like a toy to me."
The true power of technology, he thought, was resting quietly inside the Master Ball hanging on his chest.
Still, though he looked down on his enemy strategically, tactically he would not be careless.
"Dragonite—use Draco Meteor!"
It was time to end this.
There were too many hunters to deal with one by one. The fastest way was to sweep the weaklings with a single large-scale attack, then finish off the strong ones afterward.
"Stop it!" the trench-coat man yelled, face twisting as he realized what Nozomi intended. He knew all too well what Draco Meteor could do.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
The hunters fired more rockets, but before they could reach their target, Metagross—who had rushed over from behind—blocked the barrage.
Its steel arms swung like hammers, forming an impenetrable wall. Every rocket that tried to pass was shattered by its iron defense.
And those ice-type warheads, so effective against dragons, did little against the Steel-type titan.
By the time the trench-coat man realized things were going wrong and tried to issue new orders, it was already too late.
"Rooaaar!"
Dragonite threw back its head and roared, unleashing a golden beam of energy skyward.
The beam shot hundreds of meters high before bursting apart into dozens of shining points.
Then came the whistling.
A rain of blazing meteors, each trailing a golden tail, plummeted toward the hunters' position.
"Run for your lives!"
Boom!
The first meteor slammed into an aircraft preparing to take off—instantly turning it into a fireball.
The second crashed into a Nidoking being used as a living shield, sending it and the hunters behind it flying.
The third… the fourth…
Meteor after meteor struck down, and when the storm finally ended, the entire area was nothing but scorched ruin.
"This turned out even better than I expected," Nozomi murmured, stroking his chin in satisfaction.
Just as he was admiring the destruction, a figure stumbled out from behind a massive boulder—the trench-coat man, his clothes tattered, his face twisted in rage.
"Damn it… damn you!! My organization—ruined by some brat like you! I'll make you pay! I swear it!!"
"Oh? You want revenge?" Nozomi chuckled. "You'll have to take a number. Even Giovanni's still waiting in line."
Was he afraid of revenge?Not in the slightest.
With Mewtwo at his side, Nozomi feared no one. The psychic Pokémon might not obey him completely, but it would never let him die.
The trench-coat man froze when he heard that name—Team Rocket—and looked at Nozomi again, dread filling his heart.
"Who… who are you?" he stammered.
"Nozomi," the boy said calmly. "Ever heard of me?"
The man's legs gave out, and he collapsed to the ground in terror.
Of course he'd heard the name—the rising star of the Kanto League, the Trainer who had driven Team Rocket to retreat from Kanto!
But he had never imagined he would be unlucky enough to meet him here of all places.
"Please… spare me!" he begged. "I swear—I'll never hunt Pokémon again!"
Nozomi smirked. "Heh. Do I look that stupid to you?"