Professor Cozmo, full name Takao Cozmo, was a native of Fallarbor Town and one of the few people to have come out of Fallarbor Town in recent decades and made a name for himself.
Now that Fallarbor Town had changed greatly, after completing his studies, Professor Cozmo immediately returned to his hometown, established a laboratory, and continued tackling the academic problems in his field of research there.
Cozmo had originally been a professor who studied cosmos, and later earned the title of Professor through his research on meteorites. At present, he lived in that standalone laboratory north of Fallarbor Town. Professor Cozmo was sleeping soundly that night, but before daybreak, he was woken by an unexpected visitor.
“Mr. Terrance??”
Opening the door in a daze, Professor Cozmo had originally still been wondering who would visit at such an hour and disturb his pleasant dream, but when he saw that the visitor was Terrance, he immediately snapped awake, while also looking somewhat puzzled.
“Professor Cozmo, let me come in first and talk,” Terrance said.
Inside the laboratory, Terrance kept things brief. After learning that he might be under threat, Professor Cozmo was immediately startled, his expression turning somewhat flustered.
“What should I do then?”
“Listen to me.” Terrance did not know whether that mysterious email was true or false, but if it was true, then his course of action was correct. If it was false, since he had made arrangements over at Lavaridge Town as well, there would not be any major incident there either.
……
Under Gardevoir’s wide-range perception, Terrance indeed obtained some rather extraordinary intelligence.
Gardevoir, which had covered the entire Fallarbor Town with its psychic power, discovered movement and immediately sent the information back to Terrance.
“There’s danger? Then forget it.”
Terrance had originally hoped that Gardevoir could scan the other party’s figure, clothing, and appearance more clearly so as to confirm their identity, but after Gardevoir sensed that continuing to scan would cause danger, Terrance stopped letting it continue, so as not to alert the enemy.
There were many kinds of technological means that could make this sort of psychic power scan useless and trigger an alarm. Gardevoir must have sensed those fluctuations and instinctively issued a warning. Although it had only sent back some general information, it was more than enough for Terrance’s current situation.
Terrance snorted coldly and obediently waited in Professor Cozmo’s laboratory for the other party’s arrival.
A while earlier, he had already asked Mismagius and Gardevoir to transform his appearance into that of Professor Cozmo, pulling off a perfect disguise. Now, he was going to see just what the other side was planning.
With his psychic power extremely concentrated, Terrance focused his mind and could faintly hear some footsteps. The sounds were extremely faint; with the slightest inattention, he would miss them. As the footsteps became clearer and clearer, Terrance immediately focused, but the other party did not launch a direct assault as Terrance had imagined.
Outside the wall, a black shadow suddenly passed through the wall. It was a Ghost-type Pokémon. Ignoring the physical wall, it easily entered the laboratory. Immediately afterward, this Gastly, wearing a wicked smile, slowly sniffed out the scent of life and found Terrance’s location. After confirming that the appearance matched the target, Gastly directly used Hypnosis to initiate forced hypnosis. Once a series of preparations was complete, this Gastly quietly returned to its original location again and reported the situation.
“Let’s go.” After the two people carrying out the secret operation confirmed the intelligence, in the next moment, an Alakazam successfully transported them into the room where Terrance was.
Inside the room, the two people glanced indifferently at Terrance, who was sleeping like the dead on the bed. Then one of them took out something like a launcher and pressed it toward Terrance. Before long, dense strands of bug silk had bound up every part of Terrance below the head.
“He really is dead asleep.” The burly young man in the lead chuckled, then quickly threw Terrance into a sack and withdrew without lingering for even a second. Their objective was extremely clear: to kidnap Professor Cozmo.
……
On the helicopter that had come to receive the two of them.
“Captain Tabitha, how did it go?”
“Professor Cozmo was right there. It was much easier than expected,” said Tabitha, one of Team Magma’s three highest-ranking admins and the captain of the special operations team.
“Whew, good thing the Fairy Elite Four, Terrance, isn’t in Fallarbor Town. Otherwise, this operation might not have gone so smoothly,” another Team Magma member in the helicopter said with a sigh of relief.
This kidnapping operation could be said to have been carried out with lightning speed by Team Magma. However, it was not as though they had made no preparations at all. With an Elite Four stationed there, even a covert infiltration carried enormous risk. If it had been an ordinary mission, that would have been one thing, but this mission was extraordinary. It had to be fast and ruthless. The longer it dragged on, the more likely unexpected changes would occur.
Only after intercepting Hoenn League communications and confirming through spies that Terrance had gone to Lavaridge Town did they begin their operation.
“All right, I need to contact headquarters. Hurry up and withdraw,” Tabitha ordered, then began connecting to the headquarters’ communication equipment.
Faintly, through the other party’s conversation, Terrance picked up some information.
The other party seemed to have kidnapped Professor Cozmo for the purpose of meteorite research. A scientist within Team Magma, Courtney, had created a machine that used meteorites to stimulate volcanic activity, naming it the “Volcano System.” The magma disturbance at Mt. Chimney was Team Magma using the Volcano System for experiments.
After confirming the machine’s effectiveness, Team Magma’s chief scientist, Courtney, immediately came up with a new direction for improvement. However, it involved fields she did not understand. Among all of Team Magma, there was also no one who had conducted deep research into meteorites. Since the Volcano System used meteorites as its power source, knowledge of meteorites could not be lacking. In order to ensure that this round of improvements to the Volcano System would be foolproof and would not delay the plan to capture Groudon, Team Magma set its sights directly on Professor Cozmo, currently the person in academic circles with the greatest attainments in meteorite research.
“So that’s how it is.” Inside the sack, Terrance calmed down. Judging from the amount of time the helicopter had been running, they had already left Fallarbor Town. Next, there was no need to fear that the aftermath of battle would affect Fallarbor Town. After confirming this point, Terrance immediately wanted to break free from the high-tensile bug silk binding his body. At the same time, however, a bold idea suddenly emerged in Terrance’s mind: to take this opportunity and follow them to their headquarters, directly facing Team Magma’s headquarters.
This idea startled Terrance himself. He felt that he was courting death a little. After all, this operation was urgent, and he had only brought a few Poké Balls with him. Since he could not bring the entire Fairy Army with him, his strength could not be brought out to its utmost. If he were to face Team Magma’s entire fighting force, it really was hard to say how victory or defeat would turn out. Even though Altaria and the others were very strong, if they were restrained by some sort of black technology, or if the other side recklessly launched a human-wave tactic, that would be bad. Calculating carefully, six Pokémon were really too few. Furthermore, Terrance’s own safety also required Pokémon protection. If he, the Trainer, was decapitated, everything would be over…
“I’m worrying too much.” A moment later, Terrance abruptly shook his head and decisively made up his mind. If he discovered the enemy’s headquarters, then that would be a gain. Even if he could not annihilate the other side or could not beat them, with Mega Altaria, Mega Gallade, Mega Diancie, Mismagius, Ninetales, and Mawile present, retreating safely should not be a problem. If such a luxurious lineup still could not fight Team Magma, then Team Magma’s strength would be far too terrifying.
“According to the League’s intelligence, only Team Magma’s leader, Maxie, has the strength to contend with an Elite Four…”
“The other highest-ranking admins are only average in strength, but each has special skills of their own, so they can’t be underestimated either.”
Terrance had a clear idea in his heart. That being said, the greatest threat next would probably not be Trainers and Pokémon, but the technological means controlled by these large organizations. During his time serving as an Elite Four, Terrance had learned about many technological weapons powerful enough to threaten top-tier combatants. Who knew whether Team Magma had one or two of them in their possession?
After all, he had never truly fought them before. Terrance’s careful consideration was also for safety’s sake. As the helicopter flew for a long time, the helicopter finally came to a stop. Terrance knew that the other party might have reached their destination.
Could it be Team Magma’s headquarters?
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