Johto Region, Ilex Forest.
Before coming here, Gary had always thought this place would be like Viridian Forest, something he could cross in a day.
Only after experiencing it himself did Gary realize: Johto, you really were something! Such a huge primeval forest, and you called it a grove?
Yukinari even helpfully explained it to Gary: although Ilex Forest was the name of this forest, in earlier years, it had been called the Lung of Johto.
With towering trees covering more than ten thousand mu, this was no grove. This was a whole damn sea of trees!
Walking across grasslands and through dense forest, Gary felt his temper rising.
Vicious, you bastard had better show up right now~
Boom! Speak of Vicious, and he appeared!
A metal mechanical arm descended from above! Piloting his Gundam, Vicious blocked Gary and Yukinari's path.
Looking at Celebi in Yukinari's arms and Little Strawberry beside Gary, Vicious nearly went mad with delight. "Wahahahaha! A buy-one-get-one-free deal? What a treat!
"You two, put Celebi down, and I can let you live!"
"Don't even think about it! Get out of our way!" Yukinari glared furiously at Vicious!
"I'm afraid that isn't up to you~" With a vicious grin, Vicious took two Dark Balls off his clothes, ready to give the pair a little technological shock.
These Dark Balls, made using technology Vicious had stolen from the villainous Snatch Team on some unknown continent, could greatly increase the capture rate.
They could also ignore the Pokémon League's Poké Ball rules, bypass a Poké Ball's safeguards, and recapture Pokémon that already had owners.
The only side effects were that captured Pokémon became evil, violent, and irritable, and had very short lives.
These drawbacks had made Uncle Giovanni give up on using Dark Balls, but Vicious had always believed