After Koga's betrayal came to light, Lance hadn't slept a wink that night. He kept requesting reinforcements from the League. He realized that since Koga had failed to seize Celebi, Team Rocket's next move would definitely be an all-out assault.
With only three Elite Four Trainers, Gym Leader Matsuba, and some Elite Trainers brought from headquarters—all of them merely Elite-level—they were still far from sufficient.
Ecruteak City urgently needed reinforcements from the League, but when the League received Lance's request for aid, it discovered that several of its own cities had erupted into chaos the moment it dispatched support.
At first, it was only minor thieves causing trouble. Later, it escalated into arson, smashing, looting, and burning. The League had no choice but to send out a large police force to suppress these sudden riots. Unable to spare more manpower for Lance, it could only call some retired old guys.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
At the same time, riots broke out in Ecruteak City as well. However, Lance and the others stationed at Ecruteak Gym could not move. They all knew these disturbances had been created by Team Rocket to lure them into splitting their forces.
Once they divided their manpower, Team Rocket would attack. Then who would protect Celebi? Yu Hai alone would not be enough.
Faced with the unrest in Ecruteak City, they could only let Matsuba lead the Gym apprentices to suppress the riots and arrest the troublemakers.
His and Shiba's current mission was to protect the Celebi in Yu Hai's possession. No task was more important than that.
"Has it begun?" Yu Hai sat in the pavilion of Ecruteak Gym, watching thick black smoke and flames rise from the city below while calmly drinking tea.
There was nothing he could do about it. That was not his