August 7, the beginning of autumn. Weather: clear.
After a brief rest, the Hoenn League's Ever Grande Conference resumed.
The brutal quarterfinal schedule crammed all the matches into a single day.
Two matches in the morning, two in the afternoon.
The semifinals were tomorrow, and the grand final the day after. Clearly, Steven really wanted to clock out early...
Young Master Mao's match was scheduled first in the afternoon. That morning, Lorelei took the two women shopping.
Young Master Mao was happy to have some peace and quiet, so he simply went to Team Rocket's pastry shop for some egg tarts and a cup of milk tea.
While he was at it, he checked on the results of the three's business venture.
"Holy crap! This much?" Gary had to admit that he was stunned when he saw the Team Rocket Trio's entire warehouse full of assorted ingredients.
According to James, they had bought all of it with their own sales revenue, without using a single cent of the organization's funds.
Just how much money had these three made?!
Uncle Giovanni, you fool! These three shouldn't be allowed to run wild. They should be assigned to Team Rocket's business development department and worked to death!
"These are just the ingredients. Our profit is a little less than half of this, meow." Meowth rubbed his paws together as he reported, "Actually, it isn't that much. It's just enough to pay off what we borrowed from the organization before, meow..."
The corner of Gary's mouth twitched as he listened. He had nearly forgotten that these three burned through money just as quickly as they made it. Casually cobbling together a Gundam probably cost hundreds of thousands...
"Executive, did you come to see us because you need us for something?" James asked excitedly.
"Could