Chapter Summaries

Ye Li tested Umbreon’s powerful defenses and disruptive moves, then devised a control-focused battle strategy that trapped and wore down opponents. Giovanni secretly watched the training, classified Umbreon’s information as top-secret, and ordered the base to leave Ye Li undisturbed so Team Rocket could benefit from his knowledge.

• Ye Li tested Umbreon against Machoke and Koffing, and Umbreon shrugged off both a powerful physical strike and corrosive sludge.
• Umbreon demonstrated Confuse Ray and Mean Look, drawing intense interest from the base’s researchers.
• Ye Li rejected the researchers’ requests to examine Umbreon, then privately resolved to protect it and its evolution secrets.
• During a spar with Raticate, Umbreon trapped and confused its opponent, then restored its stamina with Moonlight, inspiring Ye Li to devise the “Torture King” tactic.
• Giovanni watched Ye Li through hidden surveillance, classified all information about Umbreon as S-rank secrets, and ordered everyone to leave Ye Li’s training undisturbed.

Giovanni appointed Ye Li as strategic adviser for Team Rocket’s surprise attack on Team Magma’s Kanto base, despite Ye Li’s reluctance to go near the battlefield. Ye Li accepted the assignment and boarded a military transport plane with Apollo, Umbreon, and fifty elite Team Rocket members.

• Team Rocket’s intelligence department located Team Magma’s secret base in an abandoned volcanic mine and learned it stored research on Groudon.
• Giovanni ordered Apollo to command the Volcano Sweep Operation and appointed Ye Li as its accompanying strategic adviser.
• Ye Li dreaded the dangerous deployment, while Apollo welcomed him and praised his tactical skill.
• Ye Li accepted the order, packed a few belongings, and brought Umbreon as his guard.
• Ye Li and Apollo boarded a military transport plane with fifty elite Team Rocket members and headed toward the battlefield.

Ye Li prevented Apollo from launching a costly frontal assault by proposing that Team Rocket disable Team Magma’s electronic defenses with a new electromagnetic pulse device. The raid succeeded without casualties, and Apollo’s admiration for Ye Li grew.

• Apollo prepared fifty elite operatives to storm Team Magma’s heavily guarded mine entrance.
• Ye Li reasoned that the defenses depended on electricity, and Giovanni ordered Apollo to follow Ye Li’s suggestion.
• Ye Li directed technicians to use Engineer Wang’s electromagnetic pulse device, which disabled the mine’s electronic systems.
• Apollo led the operatives into the darkened base, where they subdued Team Magma’s guards without losing a soldier or shedding blood.
• Apollo admired Ye Li’s tactics and recognized that Ye Li was more valuable than he had expected.

Team Rocket defeated Team Magma’s final defenders after Umbreon blocked Camerupt’s Flamethrower and helped Houndoom bring it down. In the Central Command Room, Ye Li found secret files about Groudon, an ancient energy signature beneath Kanto ruins, and the Red Orb, giving him a new lead on ancient power.

• Kaji ordered Camerupt to hold the Central Command Room, and its Flamethrower stalled Team Rocket’s advance despite Apollo’s Houndoom fighting back.
• Umbreon used Mean Look to trap Camerupt, then stood unharmed against its full-power Flamethrower.
• Umbreon confused Camerupt with Confuse Ray, allowing Apollo’s Houndoom to defeat it with Dark Pulse; Team Rocket subdued the remaining guards.
• Ye Li picked up Umbreon after its first real battle, and Apollo praised it as a monster.
• Team Rocket entered the Central Command Room and began copying its database while Ye Li examined the secret files.
• Ye Li learned of Groudon’s legends, a matching ancient energy signature beneath Kanto ruins, and Team Magma’s theory that the Red Orb could control Groudon.

After Team Rocket captured Team Magma’s volcano base, Giovanni became fascinated by a mysterious tablet tied to the Legendary Birds and Lugia. Ye Li recognized the tablet’s dangerous purpose, but Giovanni embraced the possibility of controlling legendary power.

• Apollo led Team Rocket’s successful assault on Team Magma’s base and sent its research documents and ancient tablet to headquarters.
• Giovanni ordered a new project team to decipher the tablet, which Apollo said might relate to Kanto’s Legendary Birds.
• Ye Li recognized the tablet as the ancient musical-score tablet used to capture the Legendary Birds and summon Lugia.
• Giovanni sensed Ye Li’s fear and questioned him about the tablet’s danger.
• Giovanni declared that Team Rocket would use the tablet to gain power above nature and legends.

Ye Li and Dr. Anya completed the first batch of trained Flash Golbat, forming a technologically equipped Ghost Unit for Giovanni. Giovanni assigned Ye Li to plan their first real combat operation: a surprise raid on a Pokémon League supply station near Celadon City.

• Dr. Anya’s team prepared thirty evolved Flash Golbat, trained in silent, coordinated attacks and equipped with silenced flight wings and infrared detectors.
• Giovanni visited the breeding room and decided to test the Ghost Unit in actual combat.
• Giovanni revealed that a Pokémon League transfer station near Celadon City held Pokémon Energy Detection Equipment from the Devon Corporation.
• Apollo warned that the station was heavily guarded by a Jenny Family elite and troops equipped with Arcanine.
• Giovanni assigned Apollo’s forces to perimeter support and the Ghost Unit to the core surprise attack, appointing Ye Li remote commander-in-chief and tasking him with the battle plan.

Ye Li planned a stealth raid on the Pokémon League's secret supply transfer station, using thirty Shiny Golbat to disable its command system. Team Rocket captured the station with little resistance, and Apollo left impressed by Ye Li's Ghost-type unit.

• Ye Li studied the transfer station's defenses and planned a silent decapitation raid to avoid a head-on clash.
• On the night of the operation, Ye Li directed thirty Shiny Golbat to scout the station and surround its command center.
• Ye Li ordered the Golbat to unleash Confuse Ray, incapacitating the operators and plunging the station's defenses into chaos.
• Apollo led Team Rocket's main force through the opening and quickly seized the transfer station.
• Apollo saw the Golbat disappear into the night and felt awe at Ye Li's surgical attack.

After investigating the attack on a Pokémon League supply station, Lorelei identified the unusual Supersonic as evidence pointing to Team Rocket and chose to abandon covert tactics. She mobilized League forces around Celadon City to strike Team Rocket bases, bringing a direct clash closer.

• Lorelei examined the supply station and detected an aggressive Supersonic variant mixed with psychic interference.
• Lorelei analyzed the lingering energy and suspected Team Rocket, linking its advanced technology to the Rainbow Game Corner.
• Lorelei decided to launch a forceful strike against Team Rocket instead of continuing a covert investigation.
• Lorelei mobilized Ace Trainers, Gym apprentices, and League combat units around Celadon City.
• Lorelei prepared to attack several known Team Rocket bases as a large-scale conflict approached.

As the Pokémon League prepared a major assault on Team Rocket, Ye Li devised a plan to use Erika and Celadon City’s citizens as a shield by presenting Team Rocket as the city’s defenders. Giovanni rejected retreat and publicly asked Ye Li for his thoughts, beginning a direct test of his scheme.

• Team Rocket’s Network Monitoring System detected the Pokémon League’s troop movements and encrypted communications, prompting an emergency meeting.
• Most executives urged Giovanni to withdraw Team Rocket’s forces from around Celadon City rather than confront the League head-on.
• Ye Li devised a plan to enlist Erika and portray Team Rocket as helping defend Celadon City from unidentified armed militants.
• Giovanni recognized the political potential of Ye Li’s plan and rejected the executives’ proposals to avoid battle.
• Giovanni addressed Ye Li in front of the executives and asked for his thoughts on the situation.

Giovanni recognized that Ye Li’s panicked act concealed the source of his strategic insights, but chose to play along. He presented Ye Li’s plan to bind Team Rocket to the Celadon Gym against Lorelei, leaving Ye Li terrified that Giovanni had exposed his thoughts.

• Giovanni questioned Ye Li, who nervously pretended to know nothing about the war.
• Giovanni realized Ye Li’s flashes of inspiration had come from the young man but kept his discovery to himself.
• Giovanni told Matori to ask Erika for help against an unidentified armed force supposedly threatening Celadon City.
• Giovanni proposed joining Team Rocket’s interests with the Celadon Gym through a City Joint Defense Force and framing the conflict as protection from outside enemies.
• Ye Li listened as Giovanni repeated his plan and feared that the Boss could see through him completely.

Matori persuaded Erika to join the Rainbow Game Corner's security force in creating a City Joint Defense Force, claiming an unidentified army threatened Celadon City. When Lorelei's League force arrived to raid the Rainbow Game Corner, Erika's forces blocked their route into the city.

• Matori showed Erika footage of an armed group supposedly approaching Celadon City and warned that its commercial district was the target.
• Matori urged Erika to bypass the Pokémon League's slow response and combine the Game Corner's security force with the Celadon Gym.
• Erika agreed, and the City Joint Defense Force set up checkpoints and cordons across major routes and commercial areas.
• Lorelei assembled an elite Pokémon League force outside Celadon City and prepared to attack the Rainbow Game Corner.
• Lorelei discovered Erika and Celadon Gym Trainers blocking the force's designated route into the city, and realized she had been trapped.

Lorelei’s attempt to arrest Team Rocket outside Celadon City stalled when Erika blocked her troops, convinced they were threatening the city. Ye Li’s plan turned the operation into a public controversy, and Giovanni decided to give Ye Li greater access to Team Rocket’s power.

• Lorelei ordered her troops to hold position and confronted Erika, but Erika refused to let the Pokémon League force enter Celadon City.
• Erika called the people behind her a legitimate security company, while Lorelei insisted they were Team Rocket.
• Reporters broadcast the standoff across the Kanto Region, and public opinion shifted toward Erika and the city’s defenders.
• Ye Li watched from the Rainbow Game Corner as his plan transformed Team Rocket into apparent allies of Celadon City.
• Giovanni admired Ye Li’s strategy and decided to give him a larger role within Team Rocket.

After public pressure forced Lorelei to withdraw from Celadon City, Giovanni formalized Team Rocket’s new influence and elevated Ye Li to Chief of Staff. Ye Li accepted the position’s badge but felt trapped by the responsibility and power tying him to Team Rocket.

• Pokémon League headquarters ordered Lorelei to withdraw after three days of public pressure and a standoff outside Celadon City.
• Team Rocket signed a long-term urban strategic cooperation agreement with the Celadon Gym, legitimizing the Rainbow Game Corner Affiliated Security Company.
• Giovanni announced that Ye Li’s Strategic Development Department would become Team Rocket’s Supreme Staff Headquarters and that Ye Li would become Chief of Staff.
• Giovanni gave Ye Li the black R Badge and authority to deploy Team Rocket’s units and resources, except for Giovanni’s Personal Guard.
• Ye Li accepted the badge but felt panic as he realized he had drifted from his plan to escape Team Rocket and now shared responsibility for its future.

After Team Rocket deciphered an ancient tablet pointing to Articuno’s resting place on the Seafoam Islands, Giovanni ordered an expedition to capture the Legendary Pokémon and appointed Ye Li to lead it. Ye Li realized the mission meant entering Articuno’s territory, but Giovanni’s coercion left him no choice but to accept.

• Dr. Anya’s team used Lin Feng’s program to decipher the tablet and identify the Seafoam Islands as a Legendary Pokémon’s resting place.
• Dr. Anya explained that the Seafoam Islands were an uninhabited, freezing island surrounded by dangerous reefs and icebergs.
• Giovanni ordered Apollo, Matori, and their elite squads to join an expedition to find and control the Legendary Pokémon.
• Giovanni appointed Ye Li as the expedition’s overall commander, shocking the conference room.
• Ye Li recognized the Seafoam Islands as Articuno’s territory and tried to refuse the mission.
• Giovanni pressured Ye Li to lead the operation, and Ye Li reluctantly promised to complete it.

Ye Li planned a detailed route through the Seafoam Islands and prepared specialized gear and Pokémon to protect his team. After reviewing the plan, Giovanni ordered the logistics department to fulfill Ye Li’s requests without regard to cost.

• Ye Li used his knowledge of the Seafoam Islands’ cave map to create a safe route that avoided dangerous areas and allowed for a quick retreat.
• Ye Li sent Engineer Wang designs for cold-resistant suits, thermal axes, and other specialized survival equipment.
• Ye Li asked Dr. Anya’s biotechnology department for cold-tolerant Fire-type Pokémon to serve as mobile heat sources.
• Ye Li compiled more than a hundred pages of preparations and contingency plans for the expedition.
• Giovanni reviewed the plan and ordered the logistics department to meet all of Ye Li’s requests, regardless of cost.

Ye Li took command of Team Rocket’s elite expedition force and departed for the Seafoam Islands, anxious about facing Articuno and focused on keeping himself alive. The fleet set sail with Giovanni’s specially trained Fearow as Ye Li’s hoped-for escape route.

• Team Rocket assembled Apollo, Matori, two other Action Team Leaders, fifty elite operatives, and more than a hundred cold-resistant Fire-type Pokémon for the expedition.
• Giovanni gave Ye Li a specially trained Fearow for transportation and told him to be careful.
• Ye Li worried that the experienced operatives would ignore his orders and that he might be caught in a battle with Articuno.
• The expedition fleet of one flagship and three escort ships left the harbor for the Seafoam Islands.
• Ye Li watched the mainland recede and hoped that everyone, especially himself, would return alive.

Ye Li guided the fleet through a blizzard and safely landed the team in a hidden harbor on the Seafoam Islands. His preparations helped the team withstand the extreme cold, and they readied themselves to enter the island’s cave.

• Ye Li took command during the blizzard and guided the fleet safely between icebergs to a sheltered harbor.
• Apollo asked how Ye Li had navigated the dangerous waters, and Ye Li claimed he had simulated routes using hydrographic data.
• The team landed on the Seafoam Islands, where extreme cold left several Pokémon struggling to function.
• Ye Li’s volcanic-rock-lined suits and cold-resistant Ponyta and Growlithe protected the team from the cold.
• Ye Li told everyone to check their equipment and replenish their calories before advancing into the cave in ten minutes.

Ye Li guided the expedition through the Seafoam Islands’ Ice Maze, using his uncanny knowledge to avoid hazards and cross an underground river. Matori grew suspicious of his familiarity with the maze, while Ye Li worried he would have to keep pretending to predict its dangers.

• Ye Li led the expedition around dangerous Pokémon nests, fragile ice, and a dead end.
• Ye Li told Apollo to have Machoke push a boulder into the underground river, diverting the current and exposing a crossing.
• Matori questioned Ye Li about his remarkable knowledge of the maze.
• Ye Li claimed he had deduced the routes from documents and geological reports, but Matori remained suspicious.
• Ye Li privately worried that the expedition would encounter more mechanisms he would have to predict.

Ye Li and the expedition reached the Ancient Ruins altar, where a team member touched the tablet and awakened Articuno. As Apollo prepared to fight the Legendary Pokémon, Ye Li realized they had to stop provoking it and find a way to communicate.

• Ye Li led the expedition through the Seafoam Islands caverns to an altar holding the other half of the stone tablet.
• Ye Li tried to stop Apollo from approaching the tablet, but an elite team member touched it first.
• Articuno awakened and emerged from the shattered frozen waterfall, overwhelming the intruders with its presence.
• Apollo sent out his Houndoom and ordered the team to prepare for battle.
• Ye Li recognized that the tablet was Articuno’s core interest and resolved to stop the provocation.

Ye Li tried to negotiate with Articuno rather than fight, offering it a way to protect its glacier in exchange for copying the writing on its Plate. As Giovanni listened to Ye Li’s transmitted thoughts, he began directing the negotiation from Team Rocket Headquarters.

• Ye Li persuaded Apollo and the others to recall their Pokémon and lower their weapons.
• Ye Li ordered Dr. Anya to offer Articuno a case of high-purity Pokéblocks, easing its hostility.
• Ye Li devised a plan to help Articuno keep outsiders away from the glacier in exchange for making a rubbing of the Plate’s writing.
• Giovanni heard Ye Li’s thoughts through the hidden communicator and decided to direct the negotiation remotely.
• Giovanni spoke to Ye Li through his earpiece and told him to repeat his words to Articuno.