Team Rocket's swelling strength and near-monopolistic commercial expansion had finally put an old rival on alert.
Team Magma, from the distant Hoenn Region.
This dark organization, which also aimed to conquer the world, had been outplayed by Team Rocket during the last Dratini incident and suffered a major loss.
Not only had they failed to seize Dratini, but they had also been taken for suckers, losing a huge sum of money for nothing.
They had never forgotten that grudge.
Now, watching Team Rocket thrive in the Kanto Region, they could no longer sit still.
Team Magma's leader, Maxie, dispatched an elite squad led by his most trusted executive, Tabitha, to infiltrate the Kanto Region in secret.
This time, their objective was neither sabotage nor direct confrontation.
It was theft.
They had set their sights on Team Rocket's most crucial technology.
-the research data from the Pokémon Breeding Base.
And all the secrets of the "Flash Plan," which had become the stuff of legend in the underworld.
Tabitha was an experienced infiltration specialist.
Late at night, he and his squad used the Ground-type Pokémon Team Magma specialized in, such as Trapinch and Sandslash, to silently dig a secret underground passage leading straight to the perimeter of the Breeding Base.
This passage perfectly bypassed every infrared surveillance device and vibration sensor on the surface.
The darkness of night was their best cover.
The base's central alarm system remained quiet, with no sign of having been triggered.
Yet, in the Strategic Development Department's office.
Lin Feng, the computer genius who was wearing headphones and listening to rock music while conducting a routine network security check, suddenly frowned.
He took off his headphones.
On the screen, a curve representing fluctuations in the Energy Field around the base's perimeter showed an extremely faint anomaly, so slight it could almost be ignored.
The fluctuation was like a small pebble dropped into a still lake, sending out a barely visible ripple.
To an ordinary security guard, this might have been nothing more than normal energy loss.
But to a Cyber Ghost of Lin Feng's caliber, it meant that a "foreign object" that did not belong to the system had entered the Energy Field's coverage area.
"Something's gotten in."
Lin Feng's expression grew serious, and he immediately reported the anomaly to Ye Li over internal communications.
At that moment, Ye Li was in his dormitory, brushing Umbreon's sleek fur.
When he received the call, his heart suddenly tightened.
An enemy?
They've come knocking already?
And they bypassed the conventional defenses and slipped in underground. Definitely professionals.
He immediately thought of the old rival they had so thoroughly swindled during the Dratini incident.
Team Magma!
The name instantly surfaced in Ye Li's mind.
He knew that a true test had arrived.
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