"Professor Fuji, you've made me wait for a long time. How much longer do I have to wait? I don't have that much patience anymore."
The man in the room heard a deep voice coming from behind.
As he turned around, he was met with a middle-aged man in a black suit. He was tall and of medium build. He had short dark hair and a pair of piercing eyes. It was as if the man could see through his thoughts.
He swallowed hard and forced himself to calm down.
"Boss, The experiment had reached the final stage. I'm doing the final check. It will be finished soon," he answered slowly as if he was afraid of angering the man.
The person who said that just now was Professor Fuji. He was a man in his late fifties with a goatee, dressed in a simple lab coat, and had a pair of round glasses on his eyes.
As one of Team Rocket's scientists, there was only one person to whom he answered. That person was the man in front of him, Giovanni, the leader of Team Rocket.
Seeing that Giovanni didn't seem to be angry, Fuji slowly breathed a sigh of relief. He then continued, "We also need to prepare a special device to suppress its energy in case it gets out of control."
Giovanni nodded and sat down on the chair not far from him. He then rubbed the head of the Persian next to his feet and said, "Good. What do you think we should call it?"
Fuji took a moment to put his thoughts in order before saying, "Its DNA has been reconstructed numerous times and has reached the most optimum state. Theoretically, its power will not be weaker than any legendary Pokemon. As for the name…."
He trailed off. It was better to leave the naming to Giovanni himself.
Giovanni stood up and slowly walked toward the cylinder glass tank. Inside the tank, a humanoid figure could be seen suspended in what appeared to be a nutrient solution.
"Since it was made from Mew's DNA, let's just call it Mewtwo."
"Mewtwo?" Fuji murmured.
Knock! Knock!
Suddenly, the door was knocked on several times.
"Come in!"
Giovanni returned to the chair and sat down.
The door was pushed to the side, and a woman with scarlet red hair came into view.
Step!
Her white heels clacked against the floor as she walked in. She had a pair of eyes that matched her hair and was dressed in a white uniform.
"Boss Giovanni, Professor Fuji," she nodded at them.
"Ariana. Why did you come here today?" Fuji asked with a smile.
Ariana, one of the four executives of Team Rocket. Besides being the third in command, she was mainly in charge of Team Rocket's finance.
"I'm here to see the boss," she said firmly.
Hearing the hint in her tone, Fuji excused himself and returned to his work.
"Why did you want to see me, Ariana?" Giovannie rested his arms on the armrest.
Ariana stood in front of Giovanni respectfully and said, "I have something to report on one of our holdings."
"Go on," he replied absent-mindedly.
"986 trainers are participating in the competition held by Celadon Game Corner. After a thorough check, we have identified around 12 people as key targets among them," she reported the information in her hand.
Team Rocket was actually the second-largest shareholder of Celadon Game Corner after Giovanni. But since Team Rockets was an illegal organization, their shares were hidden behind a few investment companies under Ariana's control.
The Double Battle tournament was proposed by her. Its real purpose was to add some fresh blood to Team Rocket.
In the past, Team Rocket mainly "invited" the trainers who participated in the League Conference. But since the League started to pay attention to their movements, they had to find another way to add new members to the group.
...
There was a well-known rule in a gambling hall. You aren't allowed to release your Pokemon, especially if it was a Ghost or Psychic-type Pokemon.
Hisoka had seen many people thrown out by the security for trying to cheat in the Game Corner.
"Hey, you! Are you in or not? Don't waste our time!" A fat man shouted at him.
"Sir, please don't make a loud noise at the table," the dealer reminded.
"I know, I know," he waved his hand impatiently.
The dealer then turned to Hisoka and said, "Sir? Are you playing with us?"
Hisoka looked at his cards and said, "Yes. I'll raise it by 50,000 dollars."
The dealer nodded and took his 50,000 dollars chips.
"I'll fold. You guys can go ahead."
A man next to him threw his cards on the table. His luck was simply too bad.
The dealer continued around the table until it was finally the fat man's turn.
"200,000 dollars!" He called loudly.
He seemed to be quite confident in his cards.
"Hisoka..."
Ran, who was standing behind, couldn't help but speak. She felt it was better to admit defeat.
Hisoka put a hand on his chin, pondering.
'Gardevoir?'
'...Your cards are stronger,' Gardevoir's voice rang in his mind.
"I'm in!" Hisoka pushed his chips toward the center.
"Fold!"
"Call!"
At the end of the turn, the chips on the table had already reached one million dollars.
"Please reveal your cards," the dealer said in a solemn manner.
"Hah! I won!" The fat flipped his cards and shouted, raising his arms in the air.
It was a three-of-a-kind.
"Damn!"
"Shit! I should fold just now!"
The other people on the table cursed one by one after seeing the fat man's hand.
"Wait! There's one more person who has yet to open his cards!" The dealer reminded them loudly.
The fat man was stunned hearing that. He looked around until his gaze finally landed on Hisoka.
Hisoka smiled at him and revealed his cards. It was a flush.
"Hisoka, you've won!"
Ran whooped with joy.
...
After Hisoka won the poker game, he quickly left the table with Ran. Although he could win several more times with Gardevoir's help, it would look too suspicious. Better not to overdo it.
The first stage of the competition was held in the Central Park of Celadon City. More than 200 arenas had been erected in the park.
There were many cameras around the competition venue. They would record the matches and broadcast them live.
At the same time, Celadon TV Station would also edit some wonderful battle clips and send them to various cities in Kanto for free, including Johto, Orange Archipelago, and even some cities in Hoenn.
"Contestants No. 489 and No. 490. Please come to the 140th arena now. Your match will begin in five minutes. Contestants No. 489 and..."
Hisoka, who watching a fight, suddenly heard the announcement coming from the speaker. He then turned toward Ran and called her.
"Ran! Let's go. Our match is about to start"
Ran turned her eyes away from the fight and looked at him wide-eyed.
"It's our turn?"
Her palms were sweating right now.
"Yes! Come on!" he urged her.
She stiffly nodded and followed Hisoka. For some reason, she suddenly felt nervous. She was afraid that she would hold Hisoka back.
140th arena was located in the eastern section of Central Park. It appeared there weren't too many people in this area. There were only a few figures scattered around the area. One of the arenas was already in full swing as they arrived.
...
The referee of their match was a man in his early teens. The young man seemed a little excited as he stood on the sidelines. In fact, this was his first time enforcing an official Pokemon battle. Since there wasn't enough referee, many students from the Referee Academy were sent to help.
After checking the number plates of the four trainers, he returned to the sidelines and raised the green flag in the air.
"Trainers, please take your place," he shouted.
Hisoka and Ran's opponents in the first round were a pair of twins. Both of them were wearing karate gis.
"The battle between Team Hisoka and Team Twin Brothers will now commence. This will be a two-on-two battle. You are only allowed to use a single Pokemon for this match. The match ends when both of your Pokemon are knocked out."
The referee announced the rules of the match and said, "Do I need to repeat?"
He looked at them with a questioning look.
Hisoka and Ran shook their heads, and so did the twins, as they stood facing each other.
"Very well. You may release your Pokemon!"
The referee's voice rang in the arena.
"Go, Hitmonlee!"
"Go, Hitmonchan!"
The twin brother released their Pokemon at the same time.
Ran only had two Pokemon, Beedrill and Ponyta. After thinking about it for some time, she decided to send her Beedrill out.
She knew she won't be of much help to Hisoka with her current strength. It would be better if she stayed behind and tried to find some opportunity to sneak attack.
"I choose you, Beedrill!"
After Beedrill appeared, she raised her lower stinger slightly at them.
"Why did you do that?" Ran facepalmed.
Her Beedrill lately had always tried to find a way to provoke her opponents.
'She must have learned this when training with Weavile,' she thought with gritted teeth.
It would be fine if Beedrill was strong. Unfortunately, her strength didn't even come close to Weavile's. It would only make the opponent angrier.
"Let's do this!"
Hisoka shouted as he threw a Pokeball into the arena.
With a pop, Gardevoir's figure appeared, followed by the crowd's exclamation.
The host of the match quickly put his finger on his headset and said, "Hey, can you help me? What kind of Pokemon is that? The one with the green hair."
A few seconds later, a reply came into his ears.
"Oh! What a rare Pokemon! It's a Pokemon from Hoenn, Gardevoir."
"Okay!"
The host nodded and began to introduce the Pokemon to the spectators.
"Hello, ladies and gentlemen. For this round, we have Gardevoir and Beedrill from Team Hisoka, and for Team Twin Brothers, they have the famous Fighting-type duo, Hitmonlee and Hitmonchan!"
Following that, cheers and applause came from the crowd.
After the crowd settled down, the referee raised his hand in the air and swung it down.
"The match starts now!"
...
"Brother! Let's attack that Beedrill at the same time!"
A young man said excitedly. He had a red bandana around his head.
After saying that, he quickly gave an order to his Pokemon.
"Hitmonchan! Use Fire Punch on that Beedrill!"
The other twin, who had a blue bandana, also followed suit.
He looked at his Hitmonlee and said, "Use Double Kick!"
He was going to help his twin to get the Beedrill out of the match first. With the weak defense of a Bug-type Pokemon, Hitmonchan's Fire Punch would be able to knock it out instantly as long as it managed to land a hit.
...