Second Pokémon

Another ten days passed, and Kakuna's molting and evolution were still a long way off.

Then trouble came knocking.

The first assembly in quite some time left even Giovanni puzzled.

There was still half a month until the end of the month. What was going on?

If they had to battle ahead of schedule, Giovanni would be finished.

Some boys who had thought of this were already looking at Giovanni with glee, even rubbing their hands together, eager to face him.

Although Giovanni frowned, he paid no attention to their looks. He would not give in until the very last moment.

Tap, tap!

For some reason, Giovanni Rika did not appear this time. Only Miyamoto showed up.

Under the puzzled, uneasy gazes of the dozens of boys, Miyamoto clapped her hands.

Immediately afterward, several Team Rocket members pushed two small carts in from outside, each filled with Poké Balls.

"Don't worry. We didn't gather you here this time to make you battle."

Miyamoto explained this first so the boys would not be too nervous.

Only then did she get to the point. Pointing at the pile of Poké Balls, she slowly said, "These Poké Balls contain all kinds of starter Pokémon. They'll be your second Pokémon!"

"We brought you here this time to collect your Pokémon and tame them. Consider this an early introduction to the process of catching Pokémon."

At these words, the dozens of boys breathed a sigh of relief. They were also delighted. Nothing could be better than increasing their strength.

Miyamoto raised a hand and continued:

"Don't celebrate too soon. All the Pokémon in here are wild, and some have even eaten people. They'll have extremely violent tempers!"

"If you aren't capable enough, these Pokémon could devour you or turn on you!"

She added, "If you can't even tame a wild Pokémon, you might as well be eliminated!"

After all, these boys had been raising Pokémon for over a month, so they still had that much confidence.

With their own Pokémon helping them, wouldn't taming another Pokémon be easy?

However, some of the boys who knew Giovanni's Pokémon had not evolved yet and was still an immobile Kakuna could hardly wait to see him killed right then.

Giovanni's brow was furrowed as well, although he was no longer the novice he had once been.

If the wild Pokémon he received was as low-level as that Rattata back then, things would be fine. With his greatly increased strength, Giovanni was still confident he could handle it.

He only feared that the gap in strength would be too great. Then he would be in trouble.

Behind Giovanni, Max asked him:

"What are you going to do? Has Kakuna still not evolved?"

Giovanni shook his head. "Not yet. It's all right. I can do this."

At that moment, Miyamoto continued:

"Now come up one at a time and choose a Poké Ball at random. Then you'll each be given a separate room to tame your Pokémon. You have two days. Anyone who fails will be eliminated!"

As their names were called one by one, the boys each chose a Poké Ball.

There was not really anything to choose between them. They were all Poké Balls, and nothing could be discerned from their appearance. It was entirely down to luck.

Soon, it was Giovanni's turn.

Giovanni had no right to refuse. Even if Miyamoto was very interested in him, it was no use. There were so many boys like him that she could not favor him.

So Giovanni could only step forward and pick a Poké Ball at random.

With the Poké Balls acting as a barrier, even Viridian Force was of little use. Besides, all he sensed from these Poké Balls was hostility, without the slightest friendliness.

A Team Rocket member walked over and waved to Giovanni. "Let's go. Follow me."

Giovanni could only follow him.

Soon, he arrived in a familiar room. It was the room where he had previously killed Lizi and Oddish.

It seemed there was a pattern to how these rooms were assigned.

He wondered whether this had been arranged deliberately to build their courage.

Bang.

The door slammed shut, leaving Giovanni alone in the empty room.

If the room had been any darker, it really would have felt as though Lizi might come to claim his life.

Giovanni knew that this world had Ghost-type Pokémon, and even ghosts.

But as for those who had died by his hand, what did it matter if they became ghosts? At worst, he would just kill them again.

Giovanni slowly raised the new Poké Ball, but still chose to let Kakuna out first.

Although Kakuna could not move now, he could at least serve as a deterrent. Failing that, he should still be able to block an attack for Giovanni.

In fact, Pokémon like Metapod could use Tackle and move, though they mainly propelled themselves by bouncing.

As for Kakuna, because his body was harder, he had less ability to move and could only be used as a shield. (I couldn't find the episode where Kakuna could use Poison Sting, so I'll keep him immobile to avoid getting flamed.)

Fortunately, because Kakuna was the Bug King, he possessed a faint aura that still had a deterrent effect.

Now it all depended on what Pokémon was inside this Poké Ball.

In fact, some of these Poké Balls even contained fully evolved Pokémon. If they encountered those, even having their own Pokémon would not be enough to stop them.

This mainly depended on how lucky Giovanni and the others were. Those without enough luck could only die. The leader of an organization needed at least this much luck.

Giovanni drew the dagger from his thigh, which gave him a little sense of security.

Actually, the instant this Pokémon attacked him, Giovanni could also recall it into its Poké Ball.

It just depended on how mobile this Pokémon was.

"Are you ready?"

Whether he was speaking to Kakuna or himself was unclear. Giovanni tightened his grip on the dagger and pressed the button on the Poké Ball.

There was a click.

The Poké Ball sprang open, and a flash of white light shone out.

A Pokémon appeared before Giovanni, purple all over, with patches and poisonous spines on his body. He resembled a porcupine, with a pair of large ears, two small front teeth, and a single horn.

This was a Nidoran♂, a Poison-type Pokémon.

Once he evolved into Nidoking, he would become both Poison-type and Ground-type.

After emerging, this Nidoran♂ first glanced warily around. He did not seem particularly timid; on the contrary, he seemed extremely ill-tempered.

His red eyes were so bright they glowed. The moment he saw Giovanni, killing intent appeared in them.

A human, and a human cub at that!

Pokémon like him that lived in the wild already hated humans.

It would have been one thing if he had been caught normally, but now he was being treated like a tool, casually passed on to someone else.

Anger almost overwhelmed his mind.

"Woof, woof!!"

He roared twice and was about to charge at Giovanni.

At that moment, however, Kakuna released a powerful aura that bore down fiercely on Nidoran♂.

Frightened, Nidoran♂ backed away repeatedly. Only then did he realize there was another Pokémon beside Giovanni.

Although Nidoran♂ was not a Bug-type Pokémon, the aura alone could still suppress him.

Such was the power of the Bug King.