"Headquarters has its sights on you. Stay sharp tonight." With that, James pulled his cap lower and hurried away.
May clutched Lin Hao's arm. "Lin Hao! Team Rocket headquarters is targeting you! They're making their move tonight!"
"Stop shaking me." Lin Hao pulled his arm free. "I just ate. You're going to make me throw up."
"Do you even understand how serious this is?!" May shouted. "That's Team Rocket's Assassination Squad! They'll do anything to get the Mewtwo Project hard drive!"
"Oh." Lin Hao yawned.
"Oh? That's all you have to say?"
"What else?" Lin Hao waved a hand. "Should I go hang a banner in the street begging them not to come?"
May stamped her feet in panic. "We have to tell Champion Lance right away!" She took out her Communicator, but Lin Hao caught her hand. "What are you doing?"
"Does the League pay bounties for catching Team Rocket members?" Lin Hao suddenly asked.
May took a long moment to respond. "What?"
"I'm asking whether catching crooks pays." Lin Hao's smile faded.
May's mind was a jumble. "I-I think so. According to the League's wanted notices, ordinary members are worth ten thousand, elites fifty thousand, and executives can have bounties as high as five hundred thousand."
Lin Hao did the math at lightning speed. Five hundred thousand! That's a whole truckload of cabbages! "You should've said so sooner." He sat upright. "Come on. Back to the room."
"Why are we going back to the room?" May was dumbfounded.
"To get some sacks ready and wait for the money to come knocking." Lin Hao sounded perfectly justified.
May opened her mouth, but nothing came out. Anyone else who heard Team Rocket was coming to assassinate them would flee Kanto overnight. This guy heard there were bounties and decided to welcome them into his room?
That night, at midnight, in a top-tier luxury suite in the Indigo Plateau Competitors' Village, the lights were off and the room was pitch-black.
May huddled in a corner of the sofa, her palms slick with cold sweat and her shoulders trembling uncontrollably.
Lin Hao sprawled on the sofa without a care, crunching through a bag of potato chips.
"Pika." Pikachu sat beside him, nibbling on a potato chip too.
"Can you stop eating?!" May hissed. "What if they release poison gas?!"
"When ordinary people get hungry, they eat a late-night snack." Lin Hao looked utterly innocent.
Inside the system space, the Legendary Pokémon had already erupted into an uproar.
Groudon stomped furiously. "(Roar! Master! Let me out! I'll crush every insect who dares ambush you into paste!)"
Kyogre looked thoroughly disgusted. "(Don't listen to that flightless idiot's nonsense! Master, let me flood the entire building with Hydro Pump!)"
Ho-Oh leisurely preened his feathers. "(Burn them to death. Sacred Fire will reduce even their souls to ash.)"
Mewtwo chimed in. "(Master, all I need to do is move a finger to crush their hearts.)"
"All of you, shut up," Lin Hao snapped inwardly. "Anyone who comes out loses a month's worth of Pokéblocks." Then he said coldly, "If you wreck the building and the League docks my money, I'll sell you to pay the debt!"
In the real world, a faint click came from outside the balcony's floor-to-ceiling window.
May stared at the shadows by the window. "Th-they're here!"
Lin Hao did not even turn his head. "Greninja."
Pop! The Poké Ball at his waist opened on its own. Greninja appeared out of thin air and dropped to one knee. "Gren."
"How many are outside?" Lin Hao asked.
"Gren, gren. (Six.)" Greninja quickly relayed the answer telepathically.
"Six." Lin Hao did a quick calculation. "If they're elites, that's three hundred thousand. It'll do."
The balcony's glass door slid open little by little, and six Team Rocket elites in tight black outfits climbed into the room.
The bald man leading them held a specially made Poison Gas Canister. "The target's on the sofa," he whispered. "Release Sleep Powder, then take both him and the hard drive."
"Roger." The members behind him took out their Poké Balls.
"Releasing poison gas in the middle of the night isn't very environmentally friendly." Lin Hao's lazy voice drifted through the darkness.
The six Team Rocket elites froze. We've been spotted! The bald man's heart lurched. "Attack!"
"Go! Weezing! Houndoom!" Six flashes of red light abruptly lit the darkness, and six vicious-looking Pokémon blocked the living room.
"Roar!" Houndoom opened his gaping jaws and unleashed a surging pillar of fire, lighting up the entire room.
"Lin Hao!" May screamed.
Lin Hao stayed on the sofa without even putting down his chips. "Greninja, don't break the glass."
"Gren!" Greninja vanished amid the firelight with incredible speed, leaving not even an afterimage.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Dull impacts rang out in rapid succession through the darkness. The six Pokémon that had just appeared were kicked flying before they could even unleash their moves.
Greninja's Aerial Ace struck each Pokémon squarely in the back of the neck, taking them out silently.
The smiles vanished from the six Team Rocket members' faces. "Wh-what kind of monstrous speed is that?!" Cold sweat poured down the bald man's face.
"Run! Hurry!" One member turned and rushed toward the balcony.
"You came all this way. Why leave?" Lin Hao swallowed his chips. "Pikachu, make our guests stay."
"Pika!" Pikachu bared his sharp teeth. Driving his short legs against the sofa, he launched himself straight toward the balcony door and cut off everyone's escape.
"Get lost, you damn rat!" The member angrily lashed out with a kick.
Thud! His foot struck Pikachu, accompanied by the sharp crack of breaking bone.
"Aah!" The member clutched his broken leg and wailed on the floor while Pikachu listlessly swished his tail.
Lin Hao stood and switched on the living room lights. The remaining five Team Rocket members huddled back-to-back, trembling.
"You're the ones Apollo sent?" Lin Hao strolled over.
"H-how do you know Apollo?!" the bald man asked, his voice shaking.
"Just a guess." Lin Hao spread his hands. "Now hand over all your cash, bank cards, and anything valuable."
May peeked out from behind the sofa and stood there stunned. What the hell was this turn of events? You're the assassination target, and you're expertly robbing the assassins instead?
"Hurry up, hurry up." Lin Hao tapped the table. "This is a perfectly reasonable self-defense fee."
The bald man gritted his teeth. "In your dreams! We're Team Rocket! We will never..."
"Pikachu," Lin Hao said.
"Pika!" Pikachu raised a Mega Punch glowing with white light.
"I'll pay! I'll hand over everything!" The bald man surrendered, pulling out his cash and even yanking the gold necklace off his neck.
Ten minutes later, the six Team Rocket members had been securely tied up and dumped in a corner.
Lin Hao sat on the sofa, carefully counting the bills. "Only three thousand?" He curled his lip in disdain. "Are villains this broke these days?"
May no longer had the energy to comment. "Lin Hao, these people infiltrated the Competitors' Village during the tournament. The League will definitely investigate thoroughly."
"That's your business." Lin Hao pocketed the money. "Remember to collect the bounties tomorrow. We'll split them fifty-fifty."
Just then, the Communicator in May's pocket began vibrating nonstop. She answered it. "What?" May froze. "They announced tomorrow's semifinal matchups early?"
Lin Hao yawned. "Who is it? Another rich young prodigy?"
"Not a rich young man." May looked at the screen, her voice wavering. "Your opponent tomorrow is a League Hidden Examiner personally assigned by President Charles Goodshow."
"Oh?" Lin Hao asked. "Is he strong?"
May raised her head and looked at Lin Hao. "He has an incredibly powerful Shiny Metagross."
Before you continue