"Even though I can't hear a word they're saying, this is so touching, meow~"
Meowth rubbed its eyes. It had no idea what had happened, but seeing Marshadow like that somehow made it feel the same way.
"That green-haired twerp seems like a really good person. How about we ask headquarters to change our target?" James asked tentatively.
"Yeah, yeah, meow! He's such a good person. Our consciences would never let us rest if we kidnapped him. We're the Team Rocket Trio, defenders of love and justice, meow~"
"Wobbuffet!"
Jessie, who was watching Ye Lan's every move through her binoculars, felt countless veins bulge on her forehead when she heard them. A few slaps sent the man, the cat, and the blob straight into the sand.
"Are you kidding me? This is our only chance to go from auxiliary members back to full members! You're just scared of the Pokémon around that green-haired twerp!"
"Don't worry. I just checked. Bunashicao are a specific Pokémon population that lives in the desert. Once that green-haired twerp leaves the desert, we can make our move.
"Then it'll be a piece of cake to capture the green-haired twerp with the Cactus Catcher we developed! Wahahahaha!" Jessie laughed smugly. Brimming with overconfidence, she completely ignored Serperior's existence.
Over the past few days, the Team Rocket Trio had never had enough to eat. When they were hungry, they ate cacti. When they were thirsty, they ate cacti. When they were tired, they ate cacti. They had even angered a large group of Cacturne with this behavior and been chased down, leaving the once-confident trio increasingly bedraggled.
Even so, they had used whatever materials they could find—cacti, scavenged stones, hardened clumps of sand, and broken chunks of sand—to build a brand-new technological weapon.
That's right. They had