"Hello, Professor. I'd like to talk to you about something!" After finishing his conversation with Johanna, Xiaoyun called the Sandgem Research Institute again.
"Oh, Xiaoyun. What is it?"
Professor Rowan asked curiously when he saw that the caller was Xiaoyun.
"Here's the thing, Professor. After leaving Sandgem Town, I rescued a Pikachu that had been captured by an evil organization along the way. Sorry for the trouble, but could you help me contact his Trainer?"
Xiaoyun gave Professor Rowan a rough account of Pikachu's situation. Although he already knew that Pikachu's Trainer was Ash, he still needed Professor Rowan's help to find out his approximate location.
"Pikachu? I know where his Trainer is." After getting a general understanding of Xiaoyun's account, Professor Rowan thought for a moment before answering, "That fellow Oak asked me to look after a boy from the Kanto Region. His name is Ash. We just met."
"According to Oak, that boy from the Kanto Region has a Pikachu as his partner. Unless something unexpected happened, it should be the one with you now."
"But the little fellow was rather unlucky and was captured by an evil organization like Team Rocket just after arriving in Sinnoh. It's wonderful that you rescued Pikachu there."
"And right now, that boy from the Kanto Region is traveling with an Aipom. He's currently in the same area as you."
Professor Rowan told Xiaoyun about Ash's current situation.
A moment later, Xiaoyun said to Professor Rowan, "Then I'll stay here for a few days and wait for Pikachu's Trainer, Professor."
"Hmm... that works, too. I'll help contact Ash from here and have him head over as soon as possible." With that, Professor Rowan hung up without even giving him a chance to say goodbye (´ε｀;).
It wasn't that Professor Rowan was cold. He simply wasn't good with words by nature. Deep down, he cared a great deal about people and Pokémon.
Ash should be somewhere in this forest. If I wait here, he should arrive within a couple of days. I'll stay here for now.
After finishing the call, Xiaoyun was about to head to his room to rest when he turned and saw Dawn and Piplup. One had her hair pecked into a tangled mess, while the other's face had been pinched until it was blotched with red and blue. They really took "hitting is affection, scolding is love" to heart.
"Are you two... done sparring?"
He tried his best not to laugh, but a slight smile still slipped onto his lips as he spoke.
"Ha... ha... haha." Dawn covered her face and laughed awkwardly. She seemed to regret getting so worked up all of a sudden that she couldn't resist having a little friendly spar with Piplup.
"Piplup~" The little blue fatty proudly raised its round face instead. It seemed it had emerged victorious from their spar.
"Ahem. I just spoke with the professor. Pikachu's Trainer is somewhere nearby, so we'll take a couple of days to rest here and wait for him." Xiaoyun didn't pursue the subject of their spar any further and addressed the two childish fools.
"No problem. We could use a rest anyway."
"Piplup!"
After hearing this, Dawn and Piplup agreed without objecting to Xiaoyun's suggestion. After all, they both had a pretty good impression of Pikachu, and getting it back to its Trainer soon would be a good thing.
"That's settled, then. We're tired from today, too. If there's nothing else, let's go rest in our rooms!" With that, Xiaoyun prepared to head to his room to wash up and rest. After running around all day, all he wanted now was to lie down in bed and sleep.
The next morning, after a night's rest, Xiaoyun began his daily training while waiting at the Pokémon Center for Ash to arrive.
"That's it, Turtwig. Keep using Tackle on that tree. That's how you'll improve your ability to take hits."
After breakfast, Xiaoyun once again directed Turtwig through its daily training, strengthening its defenses through repeated Tackles. Or, with enough training, it might even upgrade Tackle into something like Double-Edge or Iron Head.
"Xiaoyun, you're training this early!" Dawn had also gotten up and finished breakfast, then brought Piplup over to where Xiaoyun was training.
"Yep. We can't neglect daily training. We can't just cram at the last minute before challenging a Gym!" Xiaoyun explained to Dawn.
After all, he couldn't be like Ash, relying entirely on unexpected turns of events in Gym battles and only starting special training after losing, always cramming at the last minute.
"I see. Then Piplup and I should start training, too." Spurred on by this king of grinding, Dawn also prepared to put Piplup through some training.
"Piplup, Piplup!"
Rumble~ Clang, clang, clang!
Just as Dawn began training with Piplup, a robot with multiple arms appeared behind them and drove toward them. Then, under the robot's control, several mechanical arms reached into the building at once.
With an explosion, Pikachu leaped out of the building and took a fighting stance facing it.
"Who are you people? How dare you attack Pikachu!" Dawn pointed at the robot and shouted sternly.
"I heard what sounded like someone asking who we are,"
"So we came at the speed of light!... We're the stars of this era! We're the invincible Team Rocket!!" ×3
"Sigh. Sure enough, it's these three geniuses again. How long has it even been, and they've already built something like this!"
Looking at the familiar trio before him, Xiaoyun thought, You really do love Pikachu. Ash isn't even here yet, but you've already sniffed your way over.
"Hmph! You three villains again! I won't let you capture Pikachu this time!"
Hearing those familiar lines, Dawn knew it was those three weirdos from a few days ago again.
"Well, well, well, little girl. Anyone can talk big. Do you think it'll be as easy as last time?"
Inside the robot's cockpit, Jessie piloted the new machine, brimming with confidence as she mocked them.
"Pika, pika, pika!!"
After a day's rest, Pikachu had fully recovered from its injuries and cleanly unleashed the Pikachu line's signature move, Volt Tackle.
Pikachu began running, its body gradually becoming enveloped in electricity until it turned into a streak of golden lightning and rammed straight into the robot ahead.
Boom!
Lightning shot into the sky, and the explosion from Volt Tackle colliding with the robot echoed through the clouds. Not far away, Ash and Brock, who had been talking with Paul, hurried over after seeing the lightning.
Pikachu leaped out of the smoke from the explosion. Looking at the thick cloud the blast had produced, it felt certain it had this in the bag.
Clack, clack~
The next second, a mechanical arm reached out of the smoke and grabbed it again. When the smoke cleared, the robot inside was perfectly fine, without even a scratch on its paint. Sure enough, the law of "smoke means no damage" worked across all worlds.
"Keh heh heh~ Pikachu, just give up struggling! We've been reborn in fire for this capture!" (Jessie)
"We've equipped this Super Capture Attack Machine Sinnoh No. 1 with special heat-resistant, pressure-resistant, electricity-resistant armor! It has absolutely invincible defenses against attacks of any type!" (James)
"We only managed to build this with the money we earned from working for ages, so we're going to win this time, meow~"
"Hahahahaha!" ×3