Looking at the rough map in his hand, Chen Shi waved.
"All right, Swampert. Go bury them!"
"Huh?" Yoshino was stunned and shouted anxiously.
"What do you mean, bury us, bro?"
"I already told you everything! Aren't you supposed to send me to prison?"
"Swam~"
Swampert paid no attention to that. Carrying one person in each hand, Swampert ran off into the distance, clearly well practiced at this.
Even Steven was a little stunned. "Shouldn't we hand them over to Officer Jenny?"
Chen Shi scoffed. "Believe me, if we send him to prison today, he'll be out tomorrow."
Steven opened his mouth as if to argue, but when he thought about the situation within the League, he said nothing.
The Jenny Family certainly had a strong sense of justice, but they were only responsible for arresting people, not keeping them locked up.
Then Steven heard Chen Shi continue.
"There's a girl named Yuko in our Verdanturf Town. She's my age. Her parents were Senior Investigators for the League, and they died on a mission two years ago."
"The League promised Yuko a Starter Pokémon with Elite King potential and five million League Coins as compensation."
"But guess what happened?"
Steven thought for a moment. "Did the League never give them to her?"
Chen Shi sneered. "If only that were all."
"By the time that Starter Pokémon reached her, it had become a Wurmple Pokémon Egg."
"They were taking her for a fool!"
"My grandpa was furious. He went straight to Chairman Miyazaki."
"In the end, we found out that the Elite Four Level Starter Pokémon had been skimmed off at every level. By the time it reached Yuko, it had turned into a Wurmple."
"And those five million League Coins had vanished without a trace."
The more Steven heard, the darker his expression became. His father had told him the League was rotten, but he had never imagined it could be this rotten.
Both parents had died fighting for the League, yet their daughter was still being mistreated like this. If word got out, who would dare work for the League again?
"How is Yuko doing now?"
"My grandpa helped her get everything back. I heard she's traveling in the Kalos Region now."
Only then did Steven's expression ease a little.
Chen Shi said, "If you run into anyone from Team Magma or Team Aqua in the future, don't show them any mercy or listen to their talk about fair battles."
"They're desperate criminals. They're not going to play fair with you."
"And in the future, they'll... Forget it. Let's not talk about that."
Chen Shi suddenly turned serious. "Steven, you really need to work hard."
"Become Champion as soon as you can, then clean up the corruption within the League."
"I believe you can do it!"
With Steven's talent, the Champion title would be his sooner or later anyway. Chen Shi had told him all this because he hoped Steven could make a difference in the future.
He hoped Steven would stop the League from rotting any further and make this world a little better.
Although Steven felt something was a little off, he still agreed.
Then he asked, "What do we do now?"
"We're not far from Team Magma Base. Staying here is too dangerous."
Although Steven spoke of danger, there was no fear on his face. There was even a hint of eagerness in his eyes.
Those two had said earlier that they had found plenty of strange stones, and Steven was very interested.
Of course Chen Shi knew what Steven was thinking. As it happened, he was very interested in those strange stones himself.
The two exchanged a look and nodded in unison.
"Let's do it," they both said.
"But they have a Senior Elite King among them. How are we supposed to pull this off?"
Chen Shi fell silent too. The higher the level, the wider the gap became.
Senior Elite King and Gym-level sounded only one rank apart, but in reality, even the two of them together would be no match for a Senior Elite King.
Of course, that meant a Senior Elite King with at least three Senior Elite King Pokémon.
If that person only had one or two, Chen Shi and Steven were still confident they could put up a fight.
Besides, the enemy had senior members and the like too. Who knew what level those people were?
Chen Shi rubbed his chin. "We need to plan this carefully."
"I know a little about Team Magma. Their members are all extremely good with Fire-type Pokémon, which puts you at a disadvantage too."
Steven thought he had a point. They had the type advantage and were stronger than him. No matter how he looked at it, he had no chance of winning.
But Steven was not one to give up easily, and he kept turning possible plans over in his head.
Chen Shi said, "Team Magma came here to look for a meteorite. They can't possibly stay in their base all the time."
"Those intermediate and senior members have probably gone out. That executive called Firetree might be the only one guarding the base."
Steven nodded, looking convinced.
"And then?"
Chen Shi coughed and turned his gaze toward Drakloak, who had been silent all this time.
An ominous feeling immediately welled up inside Drakloak.
Inside Team Magma's temporary base, a red-haired, middle-aged man sat sprawled confidently in a chair.
This was Firetree, Team Magma's newly promoted executive.
Some time ago, the leader had sent Firetree to Meteor Falls to search for a meteorite.
He had also promised that, if Firetree found it, he would help three more of his Pokémon advance to Senior Elite King.
Tempted by the offer, Firetree had led all his subordinates into Meteor Falls.
Firetree toyed with five shrunken Poké Balls in his hand. "I never expected a bonus haul!"
"With these five Bagon, even if I fail this mission, I'm confident I can get three more of my Pokémon to Senior Elite King."
"I can sell four of them. Keeping one will be enough."
"If I keep too many, I won't have enough resources to raise them."
While Firetree basked in his delight, a pair of narrow yellow eyes swept over the entire base.
They belonged to Drakloak, who had been roped into the job. As a Ghost-type Pokémon, turning invisible was child's play.
Drakloak observed everything carefully. When Drakloak's gaze swept over the three Poké Balls at Firetree's waist, a trace of wariness appeared in those eyes.
The auras inside those three Poké Balls were extremely powerful. Dreepy felt there was little chance of winning against them. The other three were much weaker.
They were about as strong as Drakloak.
Then Drakloak's gaze settled on a pile of stones on the ground. These were all stones Team Magma had deemed useless.
Some people had dug up Evolution stones too, but those had all been picked out.
Drakloak remembered that Chen Shi was looking for strange stones.
Then Drakloak took out a Space Backpack prepared in advance and, while Firetree wasn't looking, took the stones one by one.
Throughout the process, Drakloak remained extremely careful, afraid of making even the slightest sound.
Soon, the pile of useless stones had all been packed away, and Drakloak immediately left.
Firetree still had no idea anything was missing from the base. After all, he wasn't Steven and had no interest in that pile of useless stones.
Firetree was still lost in his rosy fantasies.
Bagon
Before you continue