Chapter 144: The Three Legendary Birds Capture Plan
Rio found it hard to pull himself away from the document. He glanced at the monitoring screens—Archer and his Rockets were about to encounter Erika’s group.
"No rush—Erika’s there. That guy shouldn’t get away that easily."
Muttering to himself, Rio unapologetically picked up the proposal and flipped through it. It detailed Team Rocket’s various investigations into the three legendary birds—their habitats, habits, and capture plans.
According to the document, Moltres most frequently visited an extinct volcano on an island in the Sevii Islands called Mt. Ember. Moltres typically roosted at the summit of this peak. Because of its presence, even at night, the mountain was clearly visible under the glow of its sacred flame—which is why it was also known as Mt. Ember.
Zapdos frequently visited an abandoned power plant located beneath Cerulean City.
Articuno frequented a place called the Seafoam Islands, which housed an icy cavern where Articuno often resided.
The proposal’s capture order seemed to be Zapdos first, then Moltres, then Articuno.
Rio looked at the crouching Rocket grunts. "You all know something about this Three Legendary Birds proposal, right? Tell me—how far along is Team Rocket?"
The grunts exchanged uneasy glances, then all shook their heads.
"Useless—you don’t even know that? What good are your ears then? Greninja—cut them all off. If they can’t hear anything, they don’t need them." Rio’s tone turned cold.
"Gren~" Greninja vanished and reappeared beside the rightmost grunt, Water Shuriken in hand. Just as it was about to swing—
"I know! I know!" one of them shouted in panic.
The Water Shuriken stopped mid-swing. Rio turned his head.
The grunt continued: "I heard General Archer on the phone five days ago, congratulating someone on capturing Zapdos!"
Rio nodded. "What about Articuno and Moltres? Any mention of them?"
The grunt stammered, "I don’t know about the others—you’d have to ask General Archer. He’s in charge of this base. If you catch him, he’ll tell you whatever you want to know."
"That’s true." Rio signaled Greninja to back off. He glanced at the monitors again—Archer and Erika’s group had just met and were now locked in battle.
No rush—let them fight a little longer. The strongest always enter last. The proposal wasn’t finished yet—there was more below. He continued reading.
He came across an Eevee modification plan, detailing research into Eevee’s evolution mysteries. The goal of this modification plan was to combine the three legendary birds into one—a single Pokémon with Fire, Electric, and Ice typing.
Rio looked down at Eevee in his arms. Its eyes burned with fury.
"Trust me, Eevee—they’ll pay for this," Rio said, gently stroking it. Eevee’s anger subsided slightly.
He turned to the last page and saw a photograph of two meteorites. The caption explained that while exploring Moltres’s habitat, Team Rocket had discovered two meteorites falling from the sky. They tracked them to Birth Island in the Sevii Islands, where they found two meteorites emanating a strange glow. Research equipment had detected signs of life within them, though the nature of that life was still unknown and required further study.
Only one Pokémon came to Rio’s mind: Deoxys.
"As expected of Team Rocket—they’re second to none when it comes to finding legendary Pokémon," Rio couldn’t help but admire.
He pocketed the proposal. This might be his biggest gain from this operation. If he hadn’t come, he’d never have known that Team Rocket had already captured Zapdos—and found Deoxys’s meteorite as well. Team Rocket really was his lucky charm. A huge one.
He turned back to the monitors—Erika’s group was being pushed back by Archer.
"Let’s go, Greninja—time for the hero’s entrance."
"Gren~"
Meanwhile, on the first basement level of the Rocket base, Archer was commanding a Level 60 Crobat in battle against Erika’s Tangrowth and Eusine’s Alakazam.
"Damn it—if my Magmortar and Houndoom hadn’t been borrowed, Erika wouldn’t even be a roadblock!" Archer snarled.
"Crobat—Air Cutter!"
"Crobat~"
On the other side, Erika was puzzled. "Why is Archer—one of the Four Generals—here on the first floor instead of the bottom? And he’s not even trying to fight me properly—he’s just trying to break through."
If he wanted to escape, shouldn’t he be heading for the elevator?
"Tangrowth—Power Whip!"
"Tang~" Tangrowth’s thick vines blocked the Air Cutter.
Beside her, Eusine commanded Alakazam to use Psycho Cut—but Crobat dodged and hit Alakazam with a Supersonic, sending it into confusion. Alakazam turned and attacked Tangrowth with Psychic, catching it off guard.
"Crobat—Wing Attack!" Archer shouted excitedly.
"Crobat~" Crobat’s wings gleamed silver as it slammed into Tangrowth, making it cry out in pain.
"You few—help me!" Archer, worried about how much time he had, abandoned any pretense of General dignity and called for the grunts blocking the stairwell to join the fight and overwhelm Erika with numbers.
The grunts obeyed, commanding their Pokémon to attack Tangrowth and Alakazam. Within half a minute, Alakazam was down.
"Damn it!" Eusine slammed his fist in frustration. He’d planned to make a name for himself in this operation—to show Team Rocket what Eusine was made of—and now he’d fallen on the very first floor.
Moments later, Tangrowth fell too. Archer was ecstatic. With Erika’s strongest Pokémon out of the way, the path was clear.
"Brothers—charge!"
Archer led the charge toward the passage. Every Pokémon that tried to block them was easily dispatched by Crobat—even Erika’s second ace, Victreebel, couldn’t hold them back.
"Gym Leader Erika—what do we do? If Archer escapes, this whole operation..."
Before the trainer could finish, Erika cut him off: "Don’t worry—there’s an even bigger surprise waiting for him outside."
"You mean Mr. Rio?"
"That’s right." Erika smiled. "That guy is even stronger than me. So what if Archer broke through our encirclement? He’s about to face the real—"
She stopped mid-sentence, her expression shifting to one of utter disbelief. Because where her gaze fell—the man she had pinned her hopes on—was walking out from the stairwell inside the Rocket base.
What the hell?